


Greystoke Adventures: Fury Trail

by DChan87



Series: Pōmaikaʻi Adventures [5]
Category: Original Work, Tarzan (1999), Tarzan - All Media Types, Tarzan - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Genre: Action, Adventure, Established Relationship, Eunuch, F/M, Fantasy, Gen, Inspired by Mad Max Series (Movies), Inspired by Tarzan, Islands, Jungle, Jungle Boy, Jungle Girl, M/M, Martial Arts, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Slaves, Tribal Society, Twins, primitive
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-06-08 14:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 32,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6858502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DChan87/pseuds/DChan87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two twin runaways from a life of slavery run into Kaitan and his mate Julie, in the jungles of Greystoke Island. It's up to couple and their friends Kimi and Hilo to escort the twins across the island in an adventure to the Northern Shore, escaping the twins' former master and other dangers determined to stop them. An old-school jungle adventure with modern sensibilities!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was a dark and rainy night in the middle of rainy season on Greystoke.

Someone ran through the rain with pounding steps making deep prints of their feminine, permanently-bare feet in the mud. Louder footfalls were close behind the both of them, and getting closer. The girl shouted to the boy over the rain, which the boy barely heard. Getting closer, the girl grabbed the boy’s hand and yanked on it, making the boy painfully cry out. The girl shushed the boy, but it was too late to get their pursuer’s attention, and she knew it.

Not helping were the vegetation and brush sticking out, threatening to trip them up in seemingly random intervals. The Gods themselves must have been trying to stop them. Just by what they could hear, their pursuers were having no problems. Those pursuers looked rather menacing in their tiki masks, unlike the sacred tikis that grace the temples dotting the island; no, they were tikis of monsters and demons, and their appearance reflected that.

Plus, the darkness and lightning added to that frightening appearance.

In their haste to escape, they had forgotten that the jungle was not their friend. It was also nobody’s friend. They’d looked off into the green, hoping to escape into it, but it was not the case. “I can’t see!” The boy, who must have been close to 18, lamented.

“Keep going! We can’t go back, brother!” she replied.

As luck would have it, the boy fell and tripped in the mud, but his rail-thin frame did not sink. It was rather embarrassing though, even when his sister pulled him out of there. To make matters worse, their chasers were almost upon them. The girl pushed the boy ahead, only to quickly catch up and grab his hand.

“We’ll make it, I swear!” she huffed in between breaths.

In a stroke of luck, one of the men chasing them fell, sinking headfirst into the mud with his legs sticking out. His cohort would have kept going, but he stopped to try to pull the man out. This gave the girl and the boy the opportunity they needed to put some distance between them and their pursuers. Those pursuers struggled to get themselves moving for what seemed like a long time. Every time it seemed like they were going to get free, something else happened.

To the free man’s dismay, the man stuck face-first in the mud stopped moving. It must not have been a good way to go. The other man stood up and looked around for the two, but couldn’t see them. He cursed himself and his luck.

But their two quarries blessed their luck, and with a little less adrenaline coursing through their arteries, could at least take it easier, if their legs were pumping too hard to stop. As the fairy tales say, they ran as fast and as far as their legs could take them.

And yet they also nervously looked behind them as if they knew their pursuers would only be temporarily hampered. Their still-muddy soles spoke of that risk, as it was pretty obvious they were going to be leaving deep footprints.

It was of little concern for now.

So they silently and mutually accepted that they had to keep going and put some distance between them and their pursuers. They needed help. And they knew who to go to.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Kai of the Teo Tribe, AKA Kaitan the Awesome Jungle Dude Hero, born Kyle Anderson of Winnipeg, Manitoba, chopped some wood. He sat in the middle of the old Teo capital village, itself in the middle of a jungle clearing less than a 1/10 of a mile from the outskirts of the new Teo capital village on the southern shore of Greystoke. Most of the other huts were gone, as they weren’t needed anymore. They were replaced by small farming plots and a two-story, American-style log cabin with solar panels on the roof.

Despite the trees obstructing view of the beach, there was a path going all 528 feet to the beach, allowing the sounds of the ocean to reach this “estate”. He used to live in a treehouse in the middle of the jungle, but moved out of it 3 months ago to live closer to the sea and the Teo, the Tribe he considered himself to be a part of, just as much as a naturalized immigrant would feel a part of the country they had made their home. A pair of deer sat in the middle of the old village, munching on grass.

But for now, he’d accepted his place as both Teo and Canadian. Right now, he wore cargo shorts, while wearing a sweat-stained dark blue Winnipeg Jets t-shirt. While it was certainly not the right choice for a hot, humid and sunny day, it did the job of showing how slim the Jungle Dude was.

So when he finally relented and removed his shirt (you’re welcome, straight/bi/pan ladies and gay/bi/pan dudes), it was easy to see that while he was muscular, it was the build of a slim athlete, not a bodybuilder. He looked like a gymnast/swimmer/runner/lower-weight-class wrestler/MMA fighter. His brown hair, which had grown to shoulder length after getting cut three months ago, was also soaked. His skin was tanned, both by the sun and by his partial First Nations heritage (mainly there to add something different to the usual Tarzan-clone formula and justifiably to dilute his whiteness). A little bit of sweat got in his brown eyes. So he wiped it out.

He grabbed the axe, lifted it with those lean, muscular arms and chopped down, splitting the log in two. He repeated the same action several times until there was a sizable pile of firewood next to the tree stump he was using.

“HEY KAI!” A woman’s voice cut through the clearing, grabbing his and the deer’s attention. A young woman in her early 20s, just like him, emerged from the brush. She wore a UCLA Alumni tank top, shorts and no shoes, while carrying a hip bag. A teenager about 17 years old accompanied her, wearing a _kapa_ tube dress and no shoes.

Kimi Fujioka, a Japanese-Australian teenager he was helping to mentor, and his girlfriend, Julie Vidic, had come back from a day out.

“So where have you two been?” he teased.

“It’s called ‘science’, I’m sure you heard of it,” Julie quipped back. She walked up to lounge chair, dropped her back and flopped down upon it after pulling her luscious brown hair out of its bun. The disheveled hair, evidence that she hadn’t washed in a while, went down to her shoulder blades.

She donned her sunglasses as Kimi sat cross-legged next to her and the small table. After reaching for something, she sighed, got up and walked away into the log cabin. She returned five minutes later carrying an iPhone, an iPhone jack and a cooler. She opened it to take a bottle of water out to hand to Kyle, a Coke to Kimi and a Corona for herself. Now she could flop back down on the beach chair.

“Sun’s out, guns ouuuuuuuuut!” she sang as she threw her Michelle Obama-esque toned arms in the air. She put the iPhone on the speaker and a certain Sheryl Crow song began to play. “IIIIIIIII’m gonna soak up the suuuuu-uuuuunnnnn!”

“If you’re not too busy soaking up the sun,” Kyle interrupted, “I could use your help chopping these logs!”

“I have been doing SERIOUS scientific research!” Julie shot back after a sip of Corona and with a pointy finger. “I am very tired!” Knowing full well that the almost-17-year-old Kimi would blab on her, she covered the Japanese-Australian girl’s mouth before Kyle went back to chopping wood.

Julie was also lean and slender, but toned. While she didn’t have a six-pack, even her stomach had muscles. She was also built like a dancer/gymnast/runner/swimmer/martial artist of a smaller weight class/general athlete, and she was the average height and weight of a 23, almost 24-year-old woman, and yes, that included her bust. She works on it. Her skin tone was a light tan, along with the same Hawaiian style of tattoo on her right arm as Kyle had on his. And yes, her pits and legs were cleanly shaven. So was Kai’s pits, chest and face. No comment on “down there”.

Kimi was also of average build, height and weight of someone her age, although her muscles were beginning to gain some definition. Her straight black hair went down her back, framing a slender, average facial structure with brown eyes. But, she was also pretty. She was just a bit shorter than Julie. She also kept up her grooming, although going over how is a little iffy. She does bath, wash her hair and brush her teeth, if you need to know. She also had a Hawaiian-style tattoo, but it wasn’t quite done yet.

Kyle went back to chopping wood and Julie watched him. But after a while, he said, “You know, for all your talk of ‘objectification’, you seem to like objectifying me.”

“What makes you think that?” she asked.

“I know your sunglasses are covering them up, but it’s obvious your eyes are looking right at my sweaty chest,” he said.

“You know, we should go on a trip some time,” said Julie.

“You didn’t answer me,” he said. “Objectification of women is certainly a problem. But you’re not helping yourself if you objectify men at the same time.”

Julie sighed, put her beer down on the table and turned the song off. She leaned forward and said, “I just had to tag a fucking monkey that wouldn’t fucking cooperate with me no matter how much I weep the ‘ooh ooh, ah ah’, and saw it fuck something so horrid that I need a little fucking eye candy!”

“That’s still not a great reason,” he said. “I don’t even know if that counts as an excuse.”

“And I had to—forget it,” she huffed.

“I’m not a harem boy, you know!” he said as he continued to chop the wood.

“Harems didn’t have boys in them!” Julie replied. “And they weren’t as sexual as our modern, westernized, colonial portrayals of them, they were really just where the women in the palace household lived, nothing else!”

“You get my point, right!?”

“Yes, I do,” she finally sighed. “Besides, men aren’t allowed in the harems, unless they take your coconuts off.”

“What’d you say?”

“Nothing, dear!” she winked to the snickering Kimi.

Kyle sarcastically grimaced before returning to work.

“If we’re goin’ on a trip,” Kimi said, “We should plan it out.”

“Absolutely!” Julie concurred. “Like I said, the North Shore.”

“That’s a couple days by foot and deerback,” Kyle said.

Julie seemed to consider it, counting with her fingers and mouthing something. “Five days, maybe? A week? I guess it depends on what we do. Like if we get stopped somewhere.”

“Like where?” Kimi asked. “Julie, have you gone on any long trips?”

“Ah, that takes me back,” Julie said as if she had been waiting for a chance to tell the story she told. “My favorite was a trip my dad and my gay uncle took me on up to NorCal. We saw redwoods, mountains, awesome beaches, saw a gay wedding, even though it was technically illegal then, watched some wrestling, and explored more forests! It was the most fun I ever had on a trip!”

“Huh,” said Kai. “So that’s why you want to go on a trip.”

“… Not really,” she said. “We need a vacation.”

Kai was listening wistfully and happily to her story to her excitement in telling the story. But he was visibly indifferent with her latter answer. With nothing else to really say and a shrug, he turned back to the wood, which was almost done, and went back to chopping that wood. All the while, Julie listened to her California music, sipped her beer and made sure Kimi was okay. She was.

But that quiet didn’t last long.

A flock of birds suddenly and loudly burst out of the tree line. This caught their attention. Removing her sunglasses and putting the beer down, Julie stood up and trained her eyes to the north to find the source of the disturbance. Not much luck. Kai also put his axe down to move closer to her and see what he could find.

This new quiet was different. Both Julie and Kai licked their lips, bit those lips, twiddled their fingers and listened intently. Kimi tried to do much of the same, but having been on the island for less than half a year hadn’t yet allowed her senses to grow.

Julie had already removed her shoes and socks when they heard a muffled scream in the distance. It must have been pretty loud in person.

She might have known that they weren’t crazy about taking her with them, so Kimi jumped to her feet, ran inside the house and returned a minute later, carrying their knives, utility belts and jungle outfits. To her surprise, they took the utility belts and knives, but not the jungle gear. Julie did take her UCLA tank off however, revealing that she wore a sports bra.

“I need you to go get Hilo,” said Julie. “We’ll go on ahead.”

“For what?”

“’Cuz we probably need some help,” Julie replied almost matter-of-factly. Before she could say anything else, Kai had already rah forward, not even taking his cargo shorts off, but staying shirtless, into the brush. Julie patted Kimi’s shoulder reassuringly and followed the Canadian transplant into the brush. Kimi went without question, in spite of the visible disappointment in her expression.

Kai didn’t outwardly look like a jungle dude, what with the cargo shorts, but the moment he jumped up into the brush, he looked about at home in the trees as he would at a Winnipeg Jets game. Of course, the analogy only works in the reverse case, but since he hasn’t been to a Jets game yet, it’s obviously hard to tell if that analogy is true.

But nonetheless, he effortlessly climbed, swung and leapt all over the branches, vines and trunks. He swung like an ape, using his lean, strong upper body to maneuver from limb to limb. Swinging up to one of the branches, he squatted and listened to the sounds of the jungle.

The green all around him was practically blinding. So were numerous smells that bombarded his nose, all of which were familiar and unfamiliar. He bit his bottom lips before calling out to the jungle animals. He intently listened for the response until he saw some of the insular monkeys and cats scurrying past. One of the monkeys landed on his shoulder, twirling its tail around his collar bone and the base of his neck. He chatted with the monkey for about a second before the monkey leapt off his shoulder and scurried off with more monkeys in tow.

The Jungle Dude then proceeded to follow them.

Behind them, Julie followed on the ground until she too climbed up into the trees. Whereas Kai moved almost entirely simian-like, she was more like a cat. Hopping along, she effortlessly leapt from branch to branch like he did, found the monkeys that were all going in the same direction, and instinctively followed them. Her skills had come not from living in the wild like Kai, but from a dad who encouraged her to have fun outdoors. Must be why she decided to become a biologist in the first place. Living on Greystoke just made her better at this shit.

Leaping off one of the branches, she reached out to grab the branch in front of her. Once she got a hold of it, she swung to the next nearby branch, just like, well, a monkey. She could see Kai by now, and he was leaping off the branches of one of the trees, twisting and turning his body in mid-air until he perfectly landed on the nearest branch. This made her shake her head, roll her eyes and sigh. He executed a few more of these moves until he grabbed a vine and swung to the next tree.

They followed the monkeys for a few minutes more, not even knowing where exactly they were headed. Their path seemed random, but it’s fair to say that, while it’s been shown Kai can talk with animals, they’re still their own beings. But the abstract wasn’t what mattered, it was the direct path the monkeys were headed. And the scent Kaitan could detect was the faintest hint of something unfamiliar, and it was getting stronger. Those monkeys, on the other hand, probably smelled something much stronger than he could.

It wasn’t long before Julie finally caught up to him, crouching and squatting like he was. The two looked at each other with steeled expressions. After a second, Julie nodded and Kai leapt to the next branch. She also leapt to another branch, but in a different direction than he was going.

She kept her eyes on him, following as he effortlessly leapt, flipped and swung through the trees. There had been a rain shower not too long ago, judging by the growth of extra moss and the dampness of the bark. She almost slipped on that most and damp bark, but kept her footing, curling her bare feet around as much as she could to keep her balance. She smiled when she saw that she was good.

Less than 50 yards ahead of her, Kai was noticing the monkeys starting to slow down. A couple more swings on branches and vines later, and he finally reached what he was looking for. Still in his primal, feral, all-fours stance, he moved to a larger branch that overlooked a small clearing devoid of plants. He looked up. The trees extended high enough that they blotted out the sun in that part of the forest. All around him, plants seemed to fight for every bit of sunlight they could get. Even so, the humidity was palpable, and his already-sweat-covered skin was drenched. His naturally-wavy hair, basically LAX lettuce, could pass for straight.

Shifting his stance, putting his hand on the trunk and moving into a squatting position, he watched the clearing while listening for something else. He could hear screams and shouts. It didn’t take Superman to hear that. Judging by how loud it sounded, plus the muffling caused by the foliage, he estimated in his head that they weren’t too far off. “Two people being chased,” he whispered to himself. “And four chasing? I dunno. Sounds like it.” He inwardly clenched his teeth, closed his eyes and sighed. The forest wasn’t helping him. Even with the monkeys—

Of course!

He rolled his eyes and smacked his forehead. He turned to one of the monkeys and chirped to it. The monkey took off in the direction the sounds must have been coming from. Some more monkeys followed.

Julie followed not much longer. She was sweating, too, and probably regretting that beer she had. She took a sip from the small water bottle at her hip before crouching down on all four as well. She glanced up at him. Seeing where he was looking, she adjusted her position to where he was looking. She looked up again. He held up two fingers in his left hand and four in his right. He moved those hands like his right hand was chasing his left. Julie nodded and looked back to the clearing.

They were still for a few more minutes, watching the clearing all the while. Unmoving, they effortlessly blended into the scenery of the jungle, just like any other jungle dweller. Fitting, since that’s what they were until recently, and why it obviously looks so strange for them to be wearing modern attire and not Tarzan stuff. Just because that stuff is standard-issue though, didn’t mean they had to wear it all the time. While it will certainly be expanded upon later, they didn’t really feel the need to wear those outfits. Just how long this has been going on will also be explained.

A sharp, loud cry cut the silence. They turned in the direction the sound came from and waited. A couple more shouts and cries came towards then. Julie moved to move in a different direction, but she stayed put. Looking over at his branch, she noticed Kai had almost done the same thing.

Two people burst out of the foliage, tripping over something and falling to the dirt. They were young, slender and wearing negligible amounts of clothing that only covered the bare essentials. Not surprising, since a lot of people on the island wear similar clothes, but these looked different. The two who burst out were young, but younger than they were, perhaps 17 or 18, give or take the margin of error. And they appeared to be frantic, both in their movements and their conversation.

One of them, a girl, quickly stood up and grabbed the other one, a boy. The slender, scrawny boy seemed reluctant to do so, causing her to yell at him. He finally stood up. Both of them were rather pretty for any standards of beauty, and had it not been for the boy’s physique, it was likely that the boy could be mistaken for a girl just by how their face looked and their voice sounded. Oh, they could hear the voices, but they couldn’t understand what they were saying since they were ten feet or so below them. Acoustics weren’t helping.

Four men burst out of the foliage. The two scrambled back to their feet. Two of the men, wearing _kappa_ loincloths, grabbed them by their slender arms. It was barely a fight. The men were traditionally masculine and muscular, their prey were not. And they wore tiki masks. This made Kai tilt his head with a confused expression.

But the moment demanded action. Kai stood up, cupped his hands to his mouth and cried out to the jungle. The six figures below them stopped and looked up into the trees to see Kai and Julie standing up and glaring down at them.

“I’m Kaitan of the Teo Tribe, Hero of the Jungle!” he declared. “And this is my partner Huli! Let them go right now!”

“CURSES!” one of the men shouted. “I told you to find them before we got here!”

“I didn’t know they were here!” the other snapped back.

“We’re in Teo territory, OF COURSE they were going to find us!” the man replied. “But it doesn’t matter! KILL THEM!”

The men wearing tiki masks pulled some slings and rocks out to throw them at the two. But they leapt off the trees, twisting and turning their bodies in midair until they perfectly landed on the ground. The rocks missed them by a mile.

The chasers recoiled at the sight. But they fanned out and brandished their weapons at them, making scary faces all the while. Julie and Kai bulged their eyes and stuck their tongues out before doing an impromptu _ha’a_ dance, finishing with a bicep polishing gesture and a throat-slashing gesture.

The big bad guys lunged for them. Kaitan lunged for the first man, bent down and tackled him. The man fought back and Kaitan had trouble keeping a grip on him. But he managed to pick the man up. Then the man pushed Kaitan off so he could punch him. But Kaitan blocked the punch, got closer, grabbed him and kicked at the back of his knee. The man went down, but not before Kai elbowed the man at his shoulder socket, causing the man to scream in agony.

Leaping over the first man to lunge at her, Julie landed near the two chasees like a cat. She moved to get them to their feet, but the man lunged at her, forcing her to stand up to kick his jaw. After the meaty smack of her foot meeting his jaw, he stumbled back in a daze. But not before she followed up, punching the other cheek. She punched again, which he caught. But she jabbed him in the side of his ribs and he cried out in pain. She spun around and reverse roundhouse kicked his right cheek.

The next man ran unsuccessfully to catch Kaitan off guard, for the Jungle Dude pivoted on his still-planted right foot and kicked him, and his dirt, bark and moss-covered bare foot left a print. Kaitan dropped to all fours in an animalistic stance. The man he fought got back up and, apparently assuming that the Jungle Dude was exposing himself, tried to stomp on him. But Kai jumped up, kneed the man’s gut and picked him up. After the man tried to fight back, Kaitan did a Cena-esque Attitude Adjustment.

The last man standing gasped when Julie turned to him. He turned to run, only for Julie to tackle him. He did his best to get her off, but she persistently kept her grip tight. When he finally got her off, she rolled out of the way in her feline stance. And when he got up. She lunged and punched his jaw. In a daze, he didn’t see her get back down like a cat until she swiped at him. Her nails, which weren’t that long, dug into his skin and left a few marks painful enough to make him scream.

He collapsed to the ground as the others regrouped, although… he felt a little better when he saw one of them holding onto his right shoulder in agony. But it looked bad.

They momentarily forgot that they were fighting someone. Seeing the opportunity, Kaitan and Julie lunged forward, grabbed the two they were chasing, lifted them up—Kaitan took the girl and threw her over his shoulder, Julie threw the boy over her shoulder in what we would call a “fireman’s carry”—and ran off in the opposite direction from whence they came.

They were stunned, quite simply, and got up to chase them, but fell all over each other. They stumbled to their feet, but it was too late. Julie and Kaitan had escaped into the brush.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome to the next exciting episode of the Julie & Kaitan series!
> 
> For this, I decided to go a little simpler after the mess that was "Kaitan the Awesome", even though I think that particular story's pretty good. This one is going to be more of a journey/adventure plot, which tends to be a lot easier for people to do, and is one of the main "plots", if you will. I watched "Mad Max: Fury Road" in preparation for this, and that wil partly influence the story, mostly in what I hope to do with "show, don't tell" visual storytelling and what not. And where the name came from. XD
> 
> I also wanted to start with something different, hence why Julie and Kyle are wearing modern clothes. It's their personal choice, to be fair.
> 
> Either way, I hope you enjoy!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group meets the escaped twins, and so does Manti.

Kimi easily ran the tenth of a mile to the Teo’s ocean-side village in just a few minutes. The stifling heat and humidity that made her sweat through the bark fabric was replaced by a gentle, cool, salt-scented breeze blowing in from the south as she emerged out of the jungle.

Wooden buildings, technically a relic of a long-gone lifestyle, dotted the landscape of the hard-packed sands of the beach and the green of the coastal plain.

The first person she came across on this coastal plain was a man attending to crops on a small square plot of land. The crops in question were rows upon rows of pineapples, kalo, sweet potato and breadfruit, all in this small plot of land on the outskirts of the village. It’s safe to tell that there are more farming plots other than this one on the island. That being said, the man tending the fields stood upright when he heard Kimi sprinting past, not even giving him so much as an ‘aloha’.

Penned up next to the plot of land, pigs munched on oats and rolled in mud, chickens roamed around and roosters stared at them every now and then, wishing they could jump them, but they couldn’t, because they were penned in behind chicken wire (a gift from modern scientists). Some of those chickens ran over to see where Kimi was going, but an island dog ran past them, playfully nipping at Kimi’s heels.

A woman was carving a tiki off to Kimi’s right. She looked up, smiled and waved at her, but Kimi ignored her too. So much for politeness.

To her right, a middle-aged woman worked on some _kapa_ cloth. Her granddaughter, or at least that’s what Kimi assumed, watched as her grandmother instructed her on the finer things of cloth-making. Further down the beach, some young boys were playing a form of bowling with an _‘ulu maika_ , and argued over who was winning, because the kid who said he was winning was the son of a dog. Then again, that kid could barely even fight a frog.

“Run! The Nightmarchers are coming for you!” a little boy cackled as she ran past Kimi while chasing her brother.

“Akamu, STOP!” the girl wailed. Unable to sit by and watch someone getting pestered, Kimi walked up and grabbed the boy’s shoulder.

“He said stop,” she said. The little boy pouted and brushed Kimi’s arm off her before running away, probably to tell his mama about what Julie did.

The new village used to be a fishing village on the edge of the jungle on the southern coast. The ‘capital’ used to be further inland until Chief Manti decided to move it not too long ago. Oh, the old village is still standing, but this new village serves as the capital for the Teo chiefdom. Other villages, which are spread along the southern coast, have their own Chiefs, but Manti is the High Chief.

“OI! Watch it, sistah!” A young man about Kaitan’s age rushed past Kimi, carrying his surfboard, without even once bothering to slow down and/or step out of the way.

“ _Honi ko'u ‘elemu!_ ” she shouted back whilst flipping the man off.

“That’s not a nice thing to say,” a voice said to her from behind. She turned around and saw a man sitting on the beach juggling a few shells. Tim, the white boy who learned the Greystokian language by getting possessed, waved and translated the man’s word.

“Oh, Kame, I didn’t see you there,” she said.

“No worries, little cuz,” Kame, the village—and Manti’s— _kahuna_ /medicine man/priest said. “Come on, sit down.”

“I need to find Hilo!” Kimi shouted. “Huli and Kaitan went off to find some bad guy and—” Kame wordlessly lifted his arm and pointed to some muscular men training off to the side of the beach.

She made a bee-line to those men who were letting their testosterone

flow, doing a _ha’a_ , grunting, chanting, bulging their eyes and sticking their tongues out. Their commander walked around, examining and correcting them rather coarsely. He even smacked one man for stepping out of beat.

This was obviously Hilo.

Running up to him, Kimi tried to get his attention. He ignored her.  Groaning and moaning, she wasn’t going to give up. She followed him as he walked up and down the line, doing her best to get his attention, to almost no avail.

Finally, she grew tired of chasing him and lunged forward to tackle the man, who was older than 25, but younger than 30.

“Kimi, what are you doing!?” he shouted in his native tongue, despite Kimi’s inability to understand him. Instead, she pointed to the North. Almost sarcastically, Hilo turned in that direction, and his expression didn’t hide displeasure one bit. “What?”

“Kaitan… Huli… help!” she struggled, trying to think of the words she needed. Almost half a year and she’d yet to learn enough of the fucking language.

“Speak my tongue!” he snapped.

“Huli… Kaitan… need… help!” she struggled before finally groaning, picking the older man up and dragging him behind her, despite his rather loud protests. But as much as he didn’t know what she was doing, the urgency was obvious enough to cross the language and barriers preventing them from actually speaking to each other. However, when he finally started running, she let go so he could follow her out of the village to Kai and Julie’s log cabin, at the very least.

And it was rather noticeable to Tim, the previously-mentioned white boy-turned-chief’s-advisor-slash-liaison. He didn’t hesitate to run inside Manti’s elaborate hut, where he found the Chief meditating in the corner. After whispering something into his ear, he rushed over to the HAM radio to call the research camp. Specifically, if it looked like it was going to be this desperate, they needed a doctor.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

After a short water break, Julie effortlessly lifted the boy back onto her shoulders while watching Kai doing the same with the girl. She sighed and started running off towards the log cabin. Kai ran off behind her. The jungle trail was getting thicker and harder to traverse. They had drawn their knives to cut their way through, but it was of little use. Kaitan ran up to Julie while she furiously slashed at a stubborn plant that wasn’t letting her through. He stopped and grabbed her bare right shoulder in time to have her whip her head towards him and see her still-frustrated expression. But he pointed at the trees, her expression changed and she nodded. Then, they both made a break for the tree.

Julie went first, although the boy’s weight and his sudden shaking made it difficult. Climbing the tree with his weight literally on her shoulders kept her down. But she was strong, and she used that strong upper-body to get herself up into the tree. However, the boy was still rather nervous. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked in a surprisingly-feminine voice.

“Don’t worry,” she said in a firm, yet reassuring voice. “You’re in good hands.”

Kaitan had to shift the girl onto his shoulders as well. But he had no visible troubles, and he was up in the branches quicker than she was. Letting the girl down on the branch, he checked her pulse at her neck. “I can still feel a pulse,” he said. “Unfortunately, her skin doesn’t look very good.” He pinched her skin. It did not bounce back.

“She’s probably dehydrated,” Julie muttered.

Kaitan wordlessly picked the girl up and threw her over his shoulder. Julie didn’t do the same with the boy. He was still rather weak, at least as far as she could tell. Then Kaitan jumped onto another branch and went off back in the direction they came, with Julie close behind.

It didn’t take long for them to finally reach the clearing where their log cabin sat. In between that time, they had to jump through numerous trees just to stay in the right direction. The boy, who was slowly coming to, struggled a little bit, and amidst that, Julie felt something on her shoulder. Well, it was the lack of something, besides his… banana… that made her suspiciously raise her eyebrow. But until she could get the boy to talk, she had to focus on getting him to the log cabin.

By contrast, the girl wasn’t moving. She must have been pretty badly dehydrated.

They spotted the clearing after several minutes. The boy lifted his head up and asked, “What is that?”

“That’s home!” Julie replied. “We’ll get you fixed up!”

“Fixed up!?” the boy asked.

“Shaddap and stay calm!” Julie snapped back.

She effortlessly shifted him in her arms. His lithe, almost feminine body frame made it easy for her to hold him in one arm as she reached for a vine, took it and swung down to the ground. Kaitan did the same thing and also swung to the ground.

They emerged, naked like Adam and Eve from the brush to see Kimi and Hilo about to depart, carrying weapons and supplies. Hilo wordlessly ran over to Kaitan and took the girl from his arms. After sitting her down, he took the boy and did the same. At this point, the two sweaty jungle dwellers looked for some water, a towel and clothes.

Kimi handed them the towels first, and they found some water in the cooler. The third was harder to find, except for their standard-issue outfits. So they went inside after grabbing their shirts.

“You look much better in those outfits than your other robes,” Hilo remarked.

Kyle glared at him while adjusting his belt. Ignoring them, Julie knelt to examine the girl. Her eyes were sunken, her lips were cracked and she was looking pale. The boy wasn’t as bad, but it was still concerning. Biting her lips, she motioned for Kyle to come over to her.

“We need to get them inside,” he concluded. He took the girl in his arms and carried her into the log cabin. Julie helped the boy up and did the same. Hilo and Kimi followed suit.

It was almost like stepping into a time capsule in the log cabin. “Almost” because of the computer, refrigerator, TV, HAM radio, books and other modern amenities that made it more like someone’s cabin in the woods without the scary atmosphere. Windows let the light in, and Kai turned a few of the lamps on for a little extra. A ladder in the corner led up to the second floor, although there was also a double bed in the other.

Kai carried the girl over to the bed to lay her down. He grabbed a bottle of electrolyte water, opened it and tipped the girl’s head up so she could drink it.

Quickly figuring out what they were doing, Hilo grabbed a brown coconut, cut it in half and gave it to the boy, who drank the milk without question. Julie hurried over to the radio to call the researchers to get some help. After that, she and Kai changed clothes upstairs, although Julie was still wearing her UCLA tank.

For the first time, they got a good look at their charges. Both of them were lithe and feminine, but also mature enough to assume they’d seen 18 summers. They had long, shoulder-length, messy black hair that indicated they may have been out in the jungle for a while now. And aside from the physical signs of dehydration, they appeared to be rather healthy.

But their clothing was a little suspect.

Certainly, not everyone on the island wore full-body clothing, in fact, many of the _malos_ the men wore and the women’s _pa’u_ showed plenty of skin. It’s just that the boy’s loincloth and the girl’s outfit left so little to the imagination it made Julie and Kai’s jungle outfits look rather tame in comparison.

“Where did you find them?” Hilo asked after giving the boy some water.

“A bit north of here,” Kai replied. “They were being chased by men in ki’i masks.”

“That does not sound like a good idea,” Hilo remarked. “I would rather get my mana from another source.”

“Besides that, we took care of them,” said Kai. “We still haven’t asked them where they’re from.”

“I think they should get some fluids before we start asking,” said Julie.

“And the Chief will have to be briefed on this,” Hilo added.

“Is he coming?” Kaitan asked.

“He’s coming,” the girl muttered.

“Who’s coming?” Kaitan asked, turning around to look at the girl.

“She’s delirious… oh, SHIT!” Julie rushed to the girl’s side to promptly start giving the girl more water. “WHERE’S THE FUCKING DOCTOR!?”

Hilo didn’t hesitate when he ran out of the log cabin. A few minutes later, he came back inside with the doctor. Seeing the state the girl was in, he ran over to her bedside, grabbed an IV bag and needle, disinfected the girl’s arm and stuck it inside. Unfortunately, the girl tried to thrash about upon seeing the needle, but Julie, Kai, Hilo and even Kimi held her in place. The doctor made sure the IV was secured and hung it up on a hanger hooked onto a pole.

The doctor wasn’t the Chilean, Juan. He had gone back to Santiago after his “Tour of duty”, if you want to call it that, ended two months ago. This doctor’s name was Chris, and he was from the University of Hawaii. He was also young and handsome for any culture’s taste. And you can probably bet that he’s not going to have a vacation in a tribal paradise, with all the crazy shit everyone gets into.

He turned his attention to the boy. He examined him for several minutes, but got irritated—and felt awkward—whenever the boy shifted to a… suggestive… position. For example, his eyes widened at how the boy laid on the floor like one of Leo’s French girls. He didn’t even seem to understand what Chris was trying to do, even though Julie helped as much as she could.

Finally, she decided to explain to the boy. “Um, kid,”

“I am P’li,” he said.

“P’li. He is what we call a ‘doctor’; He is trying to examine you to see if you’re healthy.”

“You mean like a healer?” P’li asked.

“Yes,” said Julie. “Please, I’m not sure what you’re trying to do, but, you don’t have to look… sexy.”

It seemed to work, and P’li stopped fidgeting and started cooperating so Chris could finish his examination, which he finished, although at one moment he paused when examining the boy’s groin. That being said, he finished in a quick time. Then he went back to the girl and, having not had a chance to really examine her, did so. She cooperated this time, as he’d given her a sedative. He finished the examination pretty quickly and, just for good measure, gave them some shots and drew some blood.. He had to stop P’li from squirming, though. The kid just wouldn’t give him a break.

He packed up his stuff when he was finally done. Then he whispered something to Julie. The Californian’s brow raised, but the rest of her face stayed frozen.

“Alright, they look fine right now,” he said. “Just keep giving them fluids. I’ll be back tomorrow to check back up on them. Monitor the girl, though. I’ll leave some IV bags, needles and tubes just in case, but other than that, you don’t have to do much.“

“Thanks, Chris,” said Julie.

Chris nodded, picked his stuff up and left. As soon as he was out the door, Kaitan turned to Hilo and then to P’li, letting Julie treat the girl. P’li looked up at Kaitan… and immediately looked away, looking all flustered.

“I think he likes men,” Kaitan said. “Or… Do you know who I am?”

“You’re Kaitan,” said P’li. “I’ve heard about you. And I didn’t know you were so handsome.”

Kaitan snickered, rubbed his chin and grinned rather in a rather cheeky way. “Hey, I’ll take it,” he said.

“Even the guys want you,” Julie chuckled.

“FOCUS,” Hilo ordered. “What were you doing in the Southern jungles, boy?”

“Not a good idea,” said Julie. “Well? What are you running from?”

P’li pulled his knees up to his chest and looked towards the door with a rather sad expression. Then he turned his eyes back to the girl. “What’s your sister’s name?” Julie asked.

“Lea,” he said. “Her name’s Lea.”

“Now that you mention it, they do look alike,” said Hilo.

“Why should I talk to you?” P’li asked.

“Because I answer directly to High Chief Manti himself,” said Hilo. “Now answer!”

Julie smacked his arm. P’li opened his mouth to speak, but the opening door cut him off. In stepped Manti, the High Chief of the Teo confederation, looking as regal as his title implied, clad in an orange and yellow _mahiole_ and _‘ahu ‘ula_. He stood tall and erect, even as he bowed his head to remove the helmet and place it on the table next to him. Hilo, Julie, Kaotan and Kimi all deeply bowed before him, but P’li was almost too distracted to do so. It wasn’t until he caught a glimpse of Manti turning his regal head towards him that he prostrated himself like a lowly animal.

“I’m so sorry!” P’li practically sputtered. “Please do not kill me—”

“No need to,” said Manti, his voice even more regal than he imagined. “Arise.”

P’li stumbled to his feet. But when he did, he did not notice Manti’s reaction. The chief’s eyes widened in amazement. “He is beautiful,” said Manti.

“I swear, he’s girlier than Kimi and I,” said Julie. “And his twin sister’s not too bad, either.”

“Where did you find them?” Manti asked.

Kai and Julie told him everything that happened, from finding them to beating the snot out of their pursuers. Manti looked at both of them at the end, scratching his chin all the while. When they got to the part where they said the twins were dehydrated they didn’t get much out of them, Manti held his hand up. They stopped speaking.

“Is that everything?”

“Yes, my Chief,” said Kaitan.

“Have you been able to get more out of them?”

“No, sir,” said Hilo.

“What are you doing here, boy?” he asked, turning towards P’li and then looking away when he felt that strange feeling again. “Why would you risk death to come to us?”

“Lea wants to go to the North Shore,” he said.

“Eh, whaddaya know, I was just thinking about taking a trip to the North Shore,” Julie remarked. “What a strange, almost divine coincidence.”

“Focus, Huli,” said Manti. “Why does Lea want to go to the North Shore, boy?”

“My name is P’li,” he replied. “And I’m not a thing!”

“Interesting,” said Manti. “What are you escaping from?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” said P’li. “Why are you asking these things?”

“Because I need answers,” said Manti. “Things have been… eventful as of late, and having a few moons without these ‘events’ has been a blessing from the Gods. I can already tell that you are going to be trouble if someone went through the trouble to chase you.”

Feeling rather upset, P’li cocked his head to the side, displaying his effeminate profile. Once again, Manti had to turn away, and even reached downwards. Regaining his composure, he turned back to P’li, seeing the boy looking rather sad, hugging himself and… well, he wasn’t sure, but it almost looked like he was trying to subtly seduce the Chief.

“He likes guys, Your Highness,” said Julie.

“He prefers men?” Manti asked.

“Nothing wrong with that,” said Julie. “My uncle likes men, too.”

“Anything else about him?”

“Yeah, the doctor said he’s… lacking down there.”

“What?”

“Imagine an upside down coconut tree… AND THEY TAKE THE COCONUTS OFF!” Julie cackled, making a snipping motion with her fingers. Kimi laughed along with her. Kaitan and Hilo looked at each other and then reached for their respective groins, blushing redder than a steamed lobster.

“Not so loud!” the girl moaned.

“Are you getting better?” Julie asked, moving over to her side. She touched her forehead. “Your fever’s gone down a little bit. That’s good. Your brother says your name’s Lea. Is that right?” The girl nodded.

“We’re not things. We have to get home.”

“The North Shore,” said Manti. “Please understand that I am a busy man. I cannot just send warriors to escort you to the North Shore. That is a trip of several days. I also doubt the _haole_ who learn about our island can take you, either, as they are just as busy. So for now, you may stay. However, be aware that this will only be temporary and only because you are in need of healing. I will send my _kahuna_ Kame here to examine you. But remember, I cannot guarantee anything.”

“Sir, maybe there’s another solution?” Julie asked.

“Your Majesty, Huli and I would be more than willing to escort them,” Kaitan said with a bow.

“Is that so?” Manti asked. “That is a better option, but remember, it will not be easy. I will need to alert our allies about this, you understand?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” said Kaitan.

“And what happened to those men you dealt with?”

Julie and Kai froze, their teeth clenching and looking at each other. Manti sighed, rubbing his face and so did Hilo. “Perfect. Not only do we have to escort two children to an abstract location, YOU ARE GOING TO BE FOLLOWED.”

“ _WE KNEW THAT!_ ” the Jungle couple shouted in unison.

“Good!” Manti shouted. “I am glad you understand your situation, I do not have to repeat myself a second time, and yes, I did have to say that! Now that you understand, I am actually relieved you are volunteering for this.”

“Yes sir, sorry sir,” said Julie. “But we did dislocate one of their shoulders.

“However, I have more questions,” said Manti. He crossed his arms and loved at them like a manager who was unhappy that his usually-solid employee had made a mistake, but couldn’t/wouldn’t fire them because they were such a good employee. “What will you do if you do not find wherever it is that these two come from?”

“Probably bring ‘em back,” said Kai.

Manti scoffed. “There needs to be a better solution than that.”

“I know, sir,” said Kai.

“In the meantime, bring them to the village tomorrow, assuming they are healthy. Kame will also examine them. And wear your _kapa_ clothes, you look ridiculous. You are Teo for the sake of the Gods, look the part!”

“Now or tomorrow?” Julie asked.

“Now would be good, but tomorrow, you are required.”

“ _Yes, Chief_ ,” all three replied like employees listening to the boss’s lecture and just want to get home after a ridiculously long day.

“Good,” said Manti. “I will see you all tomorrow. Speaking of which, you two need to stop living in that log cabin. You look happier in the jungle or with the tribe.

"Hilo, come with me.”

“Yes, sir,” said Hilo, following the Chief out the door.

As soon as they were outside of the log cabin, Manti looked up at the sky. It was cloudy. He quietly scoffed and looked around, adjusted his _mahiole_ and crossed his arms. Waiting for him, Hilo watched the Chief until he finally started walking towards the coast. Hilo wondered if he had been accompanied, because he could not see any guards around. He shrugged. Perhaps he did not need any guards.

Then the Chief suddenly stopped. Looking dead ahead, Hilo was not aware of the Chief’s actions until he turned around and caught a glimpse of the Chief’s shocked and frightened expression.

“Are you alright, Sir?” he asked.

“I am alright,” Manti replied.

Hilo glanced down at the Chief’s groin. Why, he was not sure. But he saw a bulge in the Chief’s groin. “Sir?”

“That boy is doing things to me,” said Manti. “I cannot think about it.”

“What?”

“Nothing!” Manti insisted. He stood back up and walked off in the direction of the village. Hilo motioned to ask him something, but he didn’t get a word out the Chief. If the Chief didn’t want to talk, these wasn’t anything Hilo could do about it. He sighed and followed the Chief back to the village.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how did it look, everyone? I had some ideas for this chapter, but I decided against them because I thought they wouldn’t work this early in the story. Because of that, this took longer than I hoped to get done. However, there wasn’t much for me to do in this chapter, so there’s that. I hope you liked it!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn more about the boss of the men sent to chase P'li and Lea, while the twins recover from their dehydration.

The four men who chased P’li and Lea trudged back in the opposite direction nursing their proverbial and literal wounds.

The thick jungle impeded their journey for several hours. Not helping was Kilo’s dislocated shoulder, which they had a hard time trying to fix. Uli carefully looked at it closely, and cringed at the swelling. He tried to move his arm back into the socket with Pua holding onto Kilo’s shoulders. Kilo nodded and bit his lip right as Uli pushed it in. Kilo loudly screamed, forcing Uli to stop. He did it again, but Kilo’s screams made him stop.

“Curse our luck!” said Kaku, the fourth man. “Why did we have to run into Kai’an and Huli of all peoples?”

“Well we did, so let’s not worry about ‘what ifs’,” said Uli. “But what will the Boss think?”

“What do _you_ think the boss will think!?” Pua snapped.

“Don’t say that!” Kilo breathed in between moans and groans of pain. “We should just tell him the truth! He’ll learn anyway!”

“I WISH I could have your optimism, Kilo,” said Pua.

“We’ll never know unless we find out,” said Kilo. He adjusted his shoulder, but cringed again. Getting a little impatient, Pua sighed, rolled his eyes, shook his head and pulled some leaves off a tree. With his comrades’ help, he created a bind for Kilo’s shoulder, which they wrapped around that dislocated shoulder until Kilo’s arm was fully immobilized. They also made a sling for him, just to be on the safe side.

With Kilo finally in less pain than earlier, they could keep going. Even while he groaned from that pain, it wasn’t loud or drawn-out.

They slowly trekked and trudged through the jungle’s brush for the next several hours. The pouring rain that came a couple hours into their trek hampered it even more, turning the already-soft jungle soil into a think quagmire. “The rain will wash our footprints away,” said Pua. “We do not have to worry about being followed, or at least I hope.”  None of the others responded. Pua felt as if he was talking to himself in the end, and shrugged while pressing on.

After slogging through the quagmire for what seemed like forever, they finally emerged from the jungle. Even though this was only a part of the island, the southern forest’s density made it very difficult to get through. Now, they only had a day until they returned to—

“WHAT do you think you are doing coming back!?” Six men riding Greystokian deer rode up to surround the four. Clad in wooden, almost Mad Max-like armor, they lowered their spears into their faces. Each of the men sighed.

“We were roughed up by Kai’an and Huli,” said Pua.

The six men lowered their spears to look at each other, removing their helmets and glaring at the four others. Pua refused to budge on his story, even going as far as to point as Kilo’s shoulder, although Kilo nodded in agreement, since he experienced it firsthand. “We were in Teo territory,” he said.

“And that matters HOW?” the leader asked, pointing his spear in the injured man’s nose.

“You wouldn’t want to provoke the Teo,” said Pua. “Even if the Paradise Village warriors were with us, their larger army—”

“SHUT UP!” said the leader, moving forward into the torchlight to reveal he was a white man. “The boss came with us. He wants to know why his concubines were able to get away.”

“We just explained,” said Pua. “If we must, then let us explain to him in person.”

“Very well,” said the leader. “What will you do if he does not believe you?”

“Let us speak to him, first,” said Pua.

The sextet’s leader nodded, kicked his deer’s sides and it moved out of the way for the four men to move through.

A camp had been quickly set up in the middle of the clearing. Countless tents dotted the landscape, with men wearing the same kind of armor coming in and out of them. Most of them were white, although there were the occasional indigenous men among them. The indigenous men looked like they were in command, barking orders here and there. There was one white man, clad in wooden shoulder pads, walking among the other warriors, barking orders at the officers.

A campfire was lit in the middle, with a rather large boar skewered on a spear, turning over the fire. It was almost midnight, but there were still men laughing and conversing around the fire, laying their weapons to the side. A woman cooked some _taro_ , macadamia nuts, chicken and other foods off to the side. She was an older native Greystokian woman, but she didn’t look happy with her situation at all. Most of the men ignored her. They were too caught up in their conversation to really care about a woman glaring at them.

The tent at the end was the largest, and most elaborate. While all of them were made out of _kapa_ and had respectable designs, this tent was made of a cloth that didn’t exist on the island, and it was pitch dark. And while the other tents were large enough for one or two men to sleep in, it looked like it could house a family of four or more, like the nomads of the Mongolian steppes. The quartet nervously looked at each other before going in.

A middle-aged, bearded paleface sat at the right end of the tent, filling out some paperwork. He did not wear a suit, but he did wear an outfit similar to what Manti wore, and tattoos much like the other natives wore. In front of him were baskets filled with rice, apples, bananas, potatoes, yams,  broccoli, tomatoes, corn and wheat. The four men nervously walked in, trying to hide their visible waking until their boss looked up from his paperwork to glare at them. Said glare must have cut right through them, because they recoiled on sight.

“Why did you return empty-handed?” he asked. “Where are my concubines?”

“We ran into Huli and Kaitan,” Pua replied determinedly, “In Teo territory.”

The man growled and tossed his bamboo pen aside. “Were you afraid of them?”

The four apprehensively looked at each other before Pua turned back to the man. “Yes, sir.”

“And now, thanks to you, they are probably being protected by Manti’s lackeys. Ugh, we would have done so much more were it not for the tribes.” Pua cleared his throat, forcing the man to reconsider. “Never mind.”

“What now?”

“Go to the healer, Kilo,” said the man. “YOU three go back out and get my property back! I will also send a hawk to the Paradise Village and our other allies.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The rainy season meant that the Jungle Couple had to bring their stuff in. Not the deer. They were fine outside.

Inside, they watched TV while watching over P’li and Lea. For his part, P’li stayed at his sister’s side while she recovered from her dehydration. Occasionally, Julie would get up and change the IV bag and give her some more water and food. As she was coming around, she seemed a little uninterested in some of the stuff Julie gave her, like applesauce, but that apparently made her curious. Julie shrugged it off, chalking it up to unfamiliarity with the stuff.

When it got late and everyone else went to bed upstairs—Julie and Kyle in a bed they used mostly for guests—P’li stayed next to Lea. He stayed next to her the whole night. Or at least he seemed to be, when Julie came downstairs to find him sleeping on the bed, using his arms like a pillow.

The morning came quickly. The sun poked through the windows of the eastern side of the cabin, stretching until they hit P’li. He reluctantly woke up after several minutes of trying to keep the sun out of his eyes and turning away. He wasn’t happy having to get up and, thanks to the treatment he got for his dehydration, having to answer nature’s call. Unsure of where to go, he ran right up the ladder into the second floor.

It was a little sparse, save for the two rooms on one end, a table in front of him, a strange… tube… thing pointing out of the nearest window, and other items he didn’t recognize or knew even existed. Desperately, he ran to the door at the far end of the cabin. He first looked over the object, running his fingers over the shiny handle thingy and the actual wood that separated him from whatever was inside. Clenching his teeth, he pulled on the handle, then pushed on it. Nothing happened. He tried again and again, until he noticed it was making noise. Now putting 2 and 2 together, he balled his fist up and loudly banged on the wood until he heard something going on behind the door.

A shirtless, but shorts-wearing Kaitan opened the door. His hair was a mess, his eyes still had a few boogers in them, and he didn’t look particularly happy about being woken up. That didn’t stop P’li from blushing madly until he recomposed himself.

“I have to—”

“I see that,” Kaitan replied. “Hold on, I need to get a shirt on.” He closed the door, came out a minute later wearing the shirt and beckoned P’li to follow him, which he did. Downstairs, P’li lingered on Lea’s form for a second before following Kaitan out the door. Kai led him around the back of the cabin until they reached another structure jutting out of the back, with a carved-out crescent-shaped Grandmother Moon in the door. Kaitan opened the door and pushed P’li in. “Use that hole in the wood!” he instructed.

It was easy for P’li to see. A couple minutes later, he knocked on the door and Kaitan let him out. “Feel better?” he asked.

“Better,” P’li replied. “But I also pleasure the Master when—”

“That’s too much information,” Kaitan replied, covering his blushing face.

“Do you want me to pleasure you?”

“Uh, no, no thanks, I don’t swing that way,” he said. “Besides, I kind of have to go, too.” That’s not to say Kyle’s homophobic; he’s not. But, Julie has also… “pleasured” him, which he eagerly appreciated. “I mean, I appreciate the offer, but I’m not in the mood.”

“Oh,” said P’li.

“Sorry,” he said. “Now please, let me through. I gotta go!”

Several minutes later, they went back inside the house. They found Julie had already gotten up and was helping Lea eat her breakfast. Having not gotten a good look at her just yet, P’li’s expression showed incredible relief at the sight of her. She laughed at a joke Julie made, her skin and face looked radiant, and she widely smiled. Also, she ate her breakfast eagerly and ravenously, like someone who hadn’t eaten in months. Since it was clear she hadn’t eaten much in a while anyway, the analogy kind of fit. Next to him, Kaitan cleared his throat.

“Oh, good morning you two!” Julie said, standing up and turning towards them. She was still in her pajamas.

“P’li!” Lea cheered. “I’m feeling much better now!”

“Lea!” P’li cried, both in tone of voice and literally, throwing himself onto his sister.

But Julie cleared her throat, bringing the embracing twins back to reality. “Sorry,” said Kai. “But we kinda need to ask some questions and well… Okay, first, a healer from the outside world is coming by to check on Lea. And later, we’re taking you to the Teo village to discuss what they’re going to do with you. Huli and I already volunteered to take you to the North Shore, so you don’t have to worry too much.”

“Just behave yourselves,” said Julie. “Although I’m pretty sure you can handle that.” P’li and Lea nodded.

They didn’t have much to do until Chris arrived. But Julie did help Lea get out of bed, but it was made difficult by the wobbly steps Lea took. However, with Julie keeping her up, Lea began to get some leg strength back. After about an hour, Julie saw fit to have her try and push some weights with those legs. Lea’s straining expression as she pushed on the weights made Julie a little uneasy before she finally made her stop. It was a bit much for her.

Besides that, Kyle did some weightlifting of his own; not to build muscle, but to keep him in the slender-athletic shape he was in. Julie did some of that, too. They even lifted their barbells in perfect synchronization. When they were both done, they looked at each other’s’ sweaty bodies with classic bedroom eyes. Kimi, who was also lifting weights, sighed, shook her head and nodded. As for P’li and Lea, both were rather aroused by Kyle’s sweaty chest. You’re welcome, bi/straight/pan women and gay/bi/pan men.

Chris stopped by at around noon, while Julie was doing some exercises to keep her bust… busty. You’re also welcome, people who are attracted to women. Stopping her workouts, she walked up to watch Chris give Lea your average doctor’s visit physical, and a couple painkillers to help her headache, which he found out about while he examined her. He then shooed everyone out except for Julie and Kimi so he could check her lady bits for anything suspicious. When he was done, he told Julie and Kimi that she was fine. And apparently, someone had also been looking over her.

Eventually, he left, but not before giving Lea and P’li a clean bill of health.

They ate lunch after Chris left. And again, Lea and P’li ate a lot of the food—bread, meat, veggies, pineapples, coconut milk and water—to feed their nearly-starving stomachs. The one person unhappy about this was Kimi, since as a growing teenager, you get the idea. It came to a head when Lea reached across the table (sitting her at the table required to teach her a few manners) for some of the _poi_. Kimi saw her hand reaching for the paste, and she grabbed Lea’s wrist.

Lea didn’t need to know English and Kimi didn’t need to know Greystokian, because they glared at each other, mentally urging the other to let go and give her the fucking paste! Julie figuratively stepped in, standing up and smacking both of their hands. Since Kimi was closer to the _poi_ bowl, she would get it first. Then, after Lea gestured to pass the bowl, Kimi politely did as Lea requested. But, they both glared at each other, much to Julie’s annoyance/displeasure.

Things got a little easier, though. After lunch, Lea walked up behind Kimi. The Australian teen spun around and grabbed her arm, but Lea held her hands up, making Kimi hesitate. Then, she took the Japanese girl’s hair and started braiding it. Smiling, Kimi sat down, grabbed a book and started reading while Lea braided her hair.

As for P’li, well, they had their suspicions whenever P’li posed like one of Leo’s French Girls at odd times. And whenever Kyle tried to talk to him and ask him what was going on, he recoiled from the Jungle Dude. Even though he was fascinated by Kai’s biceps (which he showed off with a sleeveless shirt), the Jungle Dude’s attempts to reach out to P’li failed miserably. Even more suspicious was Lea glaring at him each time he posed.

Mid-afternoon came, and it was time to leave for the Teo village. P’li and Lea were made to stay downstairs while everyone else went upstairs to change. They all came back down in native _kapa_ clothing. Kaitan wore a _malo_ that covered both his front and back, much to P’li’s unhappiness, and Julie wore a two-piece, something Lea visibly had no idea was even possible. But Kimi stuck with a one-piece _pāʻū_ snuggly wrapped around her.

“Why DO we need to see the tribe?” Lea asked.

“It was Manti’s decision,” said Kaitan. “As a tribe, it’s important that we all have a say in what affects us. The confederation may make up most of the South, but this might cause trouble for everyone else.”

“We?” P’li asked until Lea elbow his arm to cut him off.

“If they’re into it, they might vote to make you tribespeople, but I doubt it,” said Kaitan. “But, the rest of the tribe probably wants to meet you.”

The quintet departed from the cabin that afternoon, although not after they fed the deer, nuzzled with them and groomed them (really, just brushed their fur) before leaving for the beach.

The trek to the beachside village lasted a couple of minutes, but it was longer actually getting through the entire village than Julie and Kaitan expected. First off, not helping were the reactions the twins had to the tikis guarding the entrance of the village. Trying to hide from them, P’li tackled his sister, tightly hugging her and trying to look away from them. But by showing reverence to them, Julie, Kaitan and Kimi made it clear, albeit kind of slowly, that there was nothing to fear from the tikis. They were still apprehensive when they walked by them, though. No surprise there.

Passing by the nearest small farm, the twins’ gazes froze at the crops, an action which caught the farmer’s attention. Standing up, he waved at them, but Lea pushed P’li away from him, although out of visible embarrassment, not fear. It made Julie and Kaitan laugh, but Kimi rolled her eyes.

The primary cause of their delays were all the people coming out to get a good look at the new arrivals. First to come out and see them was man named Tito, a forty-something man who smelling like fish and salty seawater. He had just stepped out of his hut carrying a net and a spear, when he caught sight of the quintet walking right towards him. Confused, he scratched his head and opened his mouth to speak, but someone pushed him aside. Understandably unhappy, the fisherman yelled at the people who’d just rudely collided with him. Unfortunately, Lea and P’li didn’t know this. All they heard was Tito’s screaming. And they shivered, but had to let Julie and Kaitan keep them moving. Now it was Kimi who was laughing, although Julie glared at her.

Next was an older woman named Lita. While standing in and sweeping the entrance to her hut, she heard the commotion and looked up to see the party coming towards her. Dropping her broom, she hobbled over to the youngsters making their way towards her. Her approach startled the rather thin young boy, however, although she hesitated long enough for him to relax and wave a hello to her. Something must have clicked inside her, for she started fawning over the young man, which only made him the slightest bit visibly uncomfortable. However she mostly ignored it, until Kaitan politely stepped in between the two and told her that he needed to get to the Chief’s hut. She huffed, puffed and stormed off.

Frustrated, Julie grabbed P’li’s wrist and dragged him away from the gawkers and buggers. P’li resisted, but only momentarily, as Julie’s grip (and everything about her) was much stronger than him. By the time she pulled him to Manti’s hut, he had ceased to resist. He wasn’t happy about it, though.

Manti emerged from the hut, clad in full regalia. Tim and Hilo followed him. Taking a conch shell to his mouth, Hilo blew far and wide, grabbing every villager’s attention. They came to the Chief’s hut, gathering around and sitting in front of the Chief’s porch. Kame walked up to the hut and up the stairs onto the porch so he could sit behind the Chief. Nervously, P’li and Lea looked around at all the people who were now staring at them like captive animals. P’li nervously looked over at his sister, who placed her hand on his shoulder.

“My fellow Teo!” Manti declared. “Yesterday, two runaways, chased by four men in tiki masks stumbled into our territory. Now we must discuss what to do with them.”

“What trouble have you and your palefaced _haole_ minions gotten us into this time, Manti!?” an elderly woman called out from the crowd. A murmur and a “harrumph” spread through the crowd, started by someone sitting next to her. “Those two!” P’li recoiled at the woman’s word and finger-pointing.

“Oh, that Hana!” Julie grumbled. “She’s just an old hag, don’t worry about her.”

“Hana, please!” Manti beseeched. “These two are escaped slaves. Where from, I do not know. But they wish to return to the North Shore. And as they are in our territory, we must protect them.”

“I see that boy,” said Hana. “And his very presence is an affront to our ways and traditions!”

“Your nephew is a _mahu_ ,” Kaitan replied. “How can you say such a thing!?”

“ORDER!” Manti bellowed, silencing the crowd. “I wanted to see if anyone wanted to help them, but since this has rather quickly devolved into chaos, I would like to inform you that Huli and Kaitan have already volunteered to take them back to the North Shore. I am NOT sending any warriors along this furious trail, mind you.”

“However, if anyone else is interested in escorting them, let them speak right now!” said Hilo.

Behind his back, Kaitan leaned in and whispered something to Julie. A sneaky grin spread across her lips and she snickered.

“Volunteersaysthankyou that’s a great idea, Hilo!” she said.

“Why thank you!” he reflexively replied before finally registering what she said, and his eyes bulged open.

“Good for you, Hilo!” Manti said, patting his shocked lieutenant on his back. “Kame, what do you think? Kame?”

Kame had been staring at P’li for most of the admittedly-short meeting the same way Manti stared at him the previous day. When Manti called his name out, he shook, startled. “Yes?”

“Kaitan, Huli and Hilo will be taking them to the North Shore,” said Manti. “What do you think?”

“It is a great idea,” the kahuna replied. Manti raised his eyebrow at the shirtless Kahuna. Now he found himself staring at his sculpted chest—

He brok his gaze and turned back to the crowd. “So it is decided,” he said. “Kaitan, Huli, Hilo and Kimi will take P’li and Lea back to the North Shore. And Kaitan and Huli are ordered to wear their old ‘jungle’ clothes. You know which ones, you two.” This made Julie and Kaitan groan, but they nodded their reply.

“At least you are smart enough to decide on this,” Hana sighed.

“This meeting is ended!” Manti declared. “However, I expected all of you to be back for the scheduled meeting tomorrow, although our volunteers are exempt.”

The tribe stood up and dispersed, although there were a few exceptions. Some boys and girls around Julie and Kaitan’s age walked up to them. Lilo, Julie’s best village friend, was among them.

“You’re getting yourself into trouble again?” she asked sardonically.

“We always get into trouble,” said Julie. “Are you surprised?”

“Disappointed, but not surprised,” said Lilo.

“Oi, Kaitan, you’re getting yourself into trouble again?” Kaitan’s friend, Kahe’ela asked. “You’re right back in the thick of it!”

“Shaddap,” he replied in English, much to Kahe’s confusion. “Well, I don’t really have much to worry about, unless someone chases us, and/or we find their village deserted, but that’s just part of the risk.”

“Of course,” said Kahe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to reduce the amount of exposition in this chapter so it will feel like you're basically thrown into the world, but hopefully easy to figure out what's going on. Simple "show, don't tell" stuff. But since I'm trying to make it a little more authentic, I was surprised to find the Hawaiian alphabet, which Greystokian is based off of, doesn't have a "T" sound. That's the Samoan alphabet. But, I decided to keep the "T"s, since that would mean rehauling the entire thing and I don't want to do that. So the Greystokian language is pretty much the Hawaiian language, except with a "T" sound.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party sets out on the first leg of their journey to the north and run into their first obstacle, a trio of beastmen.

The rains came after the group returned to the cabin and continued on all night. P’li watched the rain for most of the night as if never having seen the rain before, a notion so ridiculous even he laughed at it. But the rain hitting the ground, creating puddles and even flooding—although thanks to the porch and the cabin’s foundations, he had nothing to worry about.

Lea went outside to stand on the porch. Rain fell off the roof overhang. Some of it fell into things called “raingutters”, an amazing invention that caught her attention, either away from the cabin, or into buckets that quickly filled up and, in one case, overflowed, before either Kaitan or Julie ran outside to bring the buckets in. Curiously, she poked her head inside to see them pouring the water into other things. They looked like gourds, only made out of materials she’d never seen before. Such a sight was too much, so she went back out onto the porch.

The rain had made it cool down just a little bit. She shivered. And then she grimaced. Julie came stepped out onto the porch, wearing a strange… fur? She wasn’t sure what to call the odd, light-blue hooded garment and the gold-colored arching letters that read “UKLA”, only that’s what she assumed the second letter after the “U” was. “Ukla?” she asked.

“You-See-El-Ay,” Julie replied.

“‘Scuse me,” Kimi said as she brushed past Julie, carrying a spear off to the side and started practicing with it.

“I just need some more rainwater,” said Julie. “Filling up the water bottles so that we’ll have enough to last us. Lucky we’re in the middle of rainy season.”

“Why did that woman hate us?” Lea asked.

“Hana’s an old hag,” said Julie. “She’s miserable, so she takes it out on everyone else.”

“Sounds like someone else I know,” said Lea.

“Who?”

“… Forget it.”

“I hate it whenever that old hag acts like one,” Julie continued. “But don’t worry about her. You won’t even have to worry about her, you’ll be far away from her.”

That hardly seemed to reassure Lea. Sighing through her nose, she leaned against the banister while ignoring Julie.

“A simple ‘thanks’ would be nice,” Julie muttered. She took the buckets containing the rainwater into the cabin, but came back outside a few minutes later to find both young women had not moved (which is relative for the practicing Kimi). Julie walked over to the bannister, her bare feet making padding sounds on the wood and leaned against it. Lea appeared to be in a trance, staring at the rain, and that gave Julie some ideas. “I mean it,” she said. “We’ll help you.”

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Lea said without taking her eyes off the rain.

“We’ve faced worse,” said Julie. “A Monkey Queen, a long-dead wizard, cults, modern stuff, etc., etc., etc.”

“No, you really don’t,” said Lea. “But… I don’t have a choice, do I?”

“Nope,” Julie replied. “Just relax and believe in us.” She turned and went back inside to leave Lea alone again. After looking to see that Kimi was still practicing—and glaring at her—Lea turned back to the rain outside.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Everyone got a good night’s sleep, even Kaitan and Julie.

But it was still raining. “I think we’ll need to take a shower today,” said Kai. “A lot of us smell a little gamy.” For good measure, Julie sniffed her armpit, noticing the little bits of hair there and cringed at the smell.

“I’ll get the soap and shampoo,” she said.

When they finished eating, the girls and woman went outside to shower in the rain. There they got clean, including the dry wax on Julie’s stomach, shaved and washed their hair. It was a special moment and feeling for Lea. She broke out into the pouring rain when she got outside, got drenched in an instant and played around in the puddles before Julie called to her, showing the bottles of body wash and shampoo.

But Lea was confused when she first saw it. After all, no one she knew had these things. But she didn’t get worried when she saw Julie dispensing some for her and Kimi—after the two ran into the rain, got soaked and came back under the roof overhang. Then Julie pulled out another strange object, and a white substance came out. Julie then applied the stuff to her armpits, legs and… You know. When she was done, she was satisfyingly nice and smooth.

She watched them lather up, giggling all the while and putting the soap on their bodies. Then they ran back into the rain. The lather and the other substance Julie used came off. Then they both ran up to the porch.

“Don’t worry!” said Julie. “Here!” She poured some into Lea’s hand.

“It feels strange,” she said.

“It’s just soap,” said Julie. She handed a loofah to her. “Don’t worry! It’s nothing to be worried about! Watch me!” she mimed putting the stuff on her skin. Lea looked up at her, then back at the soap and loofah. After thinking for a couple of minutes, she finally put the stuff on her skin. It felt nice, cool and cleansing. Next thing she knew. Julie had put something in her hair. She tried to resist, but it felt the same as the soap on her skin.

When she was ready, she ran out into the rain and let it wash the soap away. The grimy feeling was literally washed away. And it felt great!

She was still giddily grinning and giggling upon coming back inside. She and Julie were still naked, but Kimi had already wrapped her towel around her body.

Kaitan and P’li were next. Not much else happened in their impromptu shower, except Kaitan did get visual confirmation that P’li was two coconuts short of a coconut tree, a sight that made him turn away when P’li noticed he was staring at him. For his part, P’li was more than happy to get a glance at Kai’s slender, sculpted chest and his “package”. That is, until he felt silly for staring at Kaitan as well. They both wordlessly agreed to their privacy.

When they came back inside, Julie, still topless, was helping Lea braid her hair, and Kimi doing the same for Julie. P’li looked like he wanted in on the girly time, and Kai was all the more happy to oblige, judging by his shrug and departure upstairs.

They spent the rest of the morning gathering and packing their things. As the rain slowed first to a light shower, then a drizzle, then a trickle, then entirely went away, Julie, Kai and Kimi packed all sorts of gear; GPS, maps, jerky, nuts, fruit, bows, arrows, spears, clubs, and other nick-knacks.

P’li and Lea didn’t have much else to do, so instead of helping—which visibly irritated Kimi—they sat around on the porch watching the rain slowly dissipate and the sun come out. It wasn’t long before two more figures appeared, emerging from the path to the Teo village.

Hilo didn’t look happy about his new job, in fact quite the opposite. They could hear him muttering as he laid his equipment down on the house’s front porch, wearing nothing but a _malo_ that yes, also covered his backside. He did turn to acknowledge the two, but only for a second before he went inside. Kame, who had come to bless them, nodded his acknowledgement.

They could hear him talking to Kaitan and Julie, something about the route. While they half expected an argument to erupt, based on how they interacted earlier, the tone was rather civil. Hill only raised his voice twice or thrice, only to calm down.

They had to jump off the door when Hilo and Kimi came outside. Kimi appeared to be infatuated with Hilo, as she made a few googly eyes at him. He seemed like he could care less.

“Hurry up!” he called to the inside.

“We’re coming!” Kaitan shouted.

The couple emerged a couple minutes later, wearing their famous brown animal skin jungle outfits and utility belts. P’li and Lea’s jaws dropped to the floor.

Safe to say the reality of the moment hit them like coconuts falling out of the tree.

“You happy now, Hilo?” Julie asked while adjusting her bra strap and loincloth.

“I kinda missed this thing,” Kaitan laughed.

“And I did miss the view,” Julie replied, her eyes half-lidded and a mischievous grin on her lips. After fluffing her hair a little bit, she walked over to the twins. “You guys ready?”

“Of course!” P’li replied.

Kame then blessed the group, asking the Gods to protect them and blessing them with ti leaves.

Eagerly, he ran over to Kaitan as the Jungle Dude was busy with his loincloth. “Yes?”

“Can I ride with you?”

“We’re not riding,” said Kaitan. “We’re—” He sighed, closed his eyes and mouth, all while Julie tried to keep herself from laughing too much. “Like I said, I don’t like men. We should, however, find you a boyfriend.”

“Stop doing that, P’li!” Lea snapped, rather unhappily. It caught everyone else’s attention, and they all stared at her. For her part, she hissed and looked away from her brother.

“What’s wrong, Lea?” Julie asked.

“Nothing,” Lea harshly replied. “Can we please get going?”

“Something’s going on, and we need to talk about it—”

“I DON’T WANT YOUR TALK, I WANT TO GO HOME!!!” she shouted again.

Julie clenched her fist and jaw, walked up to Lea and grabbed her necklace. “Do you WANT to go home?” Julie growled. “Or do you want to whine more than a pig!?”

“I want to go home,” Lea said through grit teeth.

“Then stop whining,” Julie hissed. “We don’t have to hear about your backstory just yet. But we need everyone to be on the same page. That includes you, Kimi! I’ve seen you glaring at Lea!” Kimi looked around, as she was unaware of what was going on. “Alright! One more thing; Kaitan, you got the sunscreen and bug spray?” Wordlessly, he held both bottles up with a small shonen-hero grin.

After applying both substances to their skin, the six were ready to go. They put their gear on the deer’s backs, reined them up and departed, with Kaitan leading the way. The ground was soft and muddy, a result of the pouring rains earlier. It made traversing the jungle, already a difficult task, harder. Still, none of them had any real difficulty, just getting used to the soggy soil and muck partially hampering their pace. Navigating the brush was the main concern. The ground would take some getting used to.

There was green all around them. Literally.

With that obviousness aside, they followed a trail that had been used for centuries by tribal peoples for trade, hunting and travel. Foliage had grown over much of the trail, but the patches of brown in between all the green marked the trail like a bull’s eye birthmark marks a deer.

The Jungle’s Hero made sure everything was hunky-dory. He scanned the trail and everything around them, listening for the smallest sound or the slightest movement. Nothing so far except for the expected sounds; monkey chattering, insects, rodents, etc, etc. But it was mostly quiet.

“Where are all the sounds?” P’li asked.

“Let us assume you are a squirrel,” said Hilo. “Would you WANT to tell the entire jungle that you are utterly defenseless and ready to be eaten?”

“… No?”

“Exactly,” said Hilo.

The trail seemed to wind through the jungle in a zig-zag pattern. At one point it went straight, then winding in another. P’li looked back and in front every now and then, clearly confused by this. But Kimi pushed him to keep him moving forward and not allowing him to see much. He seemed to find it annoying.

“Kaitan, how do I become like you?” P’li asked.

“Live in the juggle, eat plenty of protein and interact with other humans,” he almost-sarcastically replied. “If you have the dedication, that is.”

“Reminds me of my early days,” Julie laughed. “Those were kind of our first dates; when we hung out a lot in between my little field trips, slowly acclimating to the jungle and becoming what I am today! Man, has it really been that long?”

“Helps that you were pretty receptive to my teaching,” he said. “Still, the jungle life is hard. And it’s okay if it’s not for you. Now that I think about it, I think Julie and I kind of distanced ourselves from it too much.”

“What are you saying?” Julie asked.

“I mean, I think I’ve gotten over the embarrassment Aunt Brenda gave me over the jungle life,” he said. “I’m starting to like it again.”

“You know, I actually kind of agree,” she replied. “But for now, let’s focus on the trip.”

“I always assumed your obsession with the forest was silly,” Hilo mentioned. “But, perhaps it would be better if we passed the time by talking.”

“Well, what DO you want to talk about?” Kaitan chuckled.

“Anything,” Hilo replied. “You have seen the traveling Paea minstrel troupe?”

“Who?” Kimi asked.

“I forgot what they call themselves,” Hilo replied. “But they came to a Teo village not long ago. I was visiting on assignment from Chief Manti and I was fortunate to hear them play. They were good.”

“We have music at—”

“Please do not mention that place,” Lea interrupted P’li.

“What the hell!?” Julie snapped.

“I apologize,” Lea said sullenly. “I should not have reacted like that.”

“MUCH better,” said Julie.

“But I hope he does not miss that place.”

Lea’s comment kept everyone else awkwardly quiet for at least half an hour. Every time someone tried to speak, the overbearing silence caught up to them, preventing them from saying much and keeping them quiet. It visibly irritated Julie and Kaitan, who probably tried to speak the most out of everyone else. Lot of good that did them.

In the meantime, Kimi glared at Lea, but admiringly gazed at Hilo. He in turn saw this every now and then, and simply rolled his eyes, muttering something about the girl being foolish and kept his eyes forward and on the trail.

They did stop at least once, but just to eat some snacks, have some water and generally refuel for the rest of the journey. They were in sort of a semi-clearing, still covered by trees, but in a small bowl filled with plants and small patches of dirt that the group sat around in. Helping was the now-hardened dry soil. When they were done, they picked their things up and kept going.

But they didn’t follow the trail. They instead moved right through the brush. Confusion gripped P’li and Lea, but their attempts to find out failed whenever they either tried to speak or a leaf/branch smacked their faces. It was annoying and humiliating. Lea pushed at P’li’s shoulder, a gesture he didn’t appreciate, and made him smack her back. Hilo ended their miniature spat, stepping in between the two and pushing P’li up to the front of the mini caravan. But, this put Lea and Kimi right next to each other, and neither of them were particularly happy about this.

Another hour passed and they were still not out of the jungle. Their path took twisting turns, sometimes going back and forth, but turning back out of the jungle again. This concerned P’li and Lea just a little more, and after having a silent discussion, with Hilo stuck in the middle, P’li ran up to Kaitan. He found the Jungle Dude’s expression to be stern, steely-eyed and determined.

“What’s going on?” P’li asked.

“I think we’re being followed,” Kaitan replied.

P’li’s blood and body froze while the rest of the party walked past, until Lea caught up to him. When he told her what Kaitan said, she froze, too. It took Hilo turning around to grab the both of them to keep them moving. P

They both examined their surroundings for anything, but didn’t see anything. Sniffing the air, they didn’t detect anything there, either. Whatever it was, Julie and Kaitan were already on it. Hilo jogged up ahead to the two to talk to them. From the way it looked, he was in command. He pointed at a few things as the two nodded. Kimi and Lea looked at each other in a non-hostile way for the first time all day, and Kimi even shared a glance with P’li.

The company kept walking through the thick brush. They knew their bare feet would leave tracks, but it didn’t make a difference. What did make a difference was the need to navigate this thick foliage, brushing any bugs that may have gotten on their skin, although that wasn’t needed thanks to the bug spray, and watching out for any attackers.

If there was any tension so-thick-you-could-cut-it-with-a-broadsword in the air, then P’li and Lea could feel it pressing down on their chests. They tried to keep close to Hilo, Kaitan and Julie, although the three not only didn’t want them to do it, they whisper-yelled at them to stay separated. It didn’t really matter much. They gripped their arms so tightly they almost cut the blood circulation off to the hands, forcing them to shove them off.

They soon reached a small clearing, but kept going. P’li and Lea wanted to stop. A lot of good that did them.

They were back in the brush when they heard the shuffling leaves and branches. Hilo, Julie, Kaitan and Kimi quickly moved into defensive stances, pointing their weapons outward and swinging them around. They stayed silent and listened.

Hairy hands suddenly reached out of the brush and grabbed P’li and Lea. They screamed.

Kaitan reflexively lunged for the arms grabbing the both of them and with precise strikes, got them to let go. Two ape-like creatures burst out of the foliage. To our modern eyes, they looked like a combination of real apes and something out of an anime, Dragonball Z, to be exact, and a little bit of bigfoot. But they carried crude, yet obviously-effective weapons, if the bits of dried blood on the stone spear tips indicated. And although they obviously didn’t speak English or Greystokian, the guttural sounds and grunts they did make sounded a lot like a real language, or proto-language, in this case. But it was also obvious they were not there for First Contact.

Kaitan made similar sounds to them. They shot back in obviously-hostile voices that made the Jungle Dude raise an eyebrow. Next thing P’li knew, Julie lunged for the man-ape-man… whatever you want to call him, thrusting her spear at his chest, while Hilo led the deer carrying their things out of the line of harm. Her spear pierced the ape-man-ape’s hide, but its refusal to go any deeper indicated something bad.

By now, Kimi had pulled P’li and Lea out of harm’s way, earning a grudgingly respectful expression from Lea.

The beastmen momentarily backed off to reassess the situation. A third ape-man-ape emerged from the brush, making quizzical sounds to his apparent comrades. After a quick discussion, they fanned out, either to surround the jungle trio or to distract them. It turned out to be both.

One of the beastmen, who resembled an orangutan, spun around and lunged at P’li and Lea. P’li stumbled and tried to run, but Kimi got in their way, wielding a large club that she swung at the beastman. It stopped in its tracks, but Kimi’s swipe missed. She could see Kaitan and Julie fighting other beastmen. And it distracted her. The beastman got its hands on her with a growl. Instead of crushing her, the beastman pushed her aside and went straight for P’li and Lea. Lea got in front of her brother, brandishing a spear in front of the beastman. P’li didn’t even bother to try and put up a fight, much to Lea’s dismay.

Something hit the beastman from behind. He turned around at Kimi as she flung another rock at him. He roared at her, grabbed P’li and pushed Lea aside. Both twins screamed as P’li struggled to break free, but his frail form was useless against the beastman. Kimi slung another rock at him. It bounced off his forehead like a pebble bouncing off a steel wall. But she didn’t back down. Instead, she drew her knife and lunged at the beastman. He must have expected her to go for his midsection, because that’s where he readied himself. But he was surprised when she tackled his legs, effortlessly knocking him down.

But he got back up, with P’li still weakly struggling on his shoulder. He turned to Kimi like he was sick of some bad toy.

And that’s when Hilo bashed his face in with his own club.

Well, only figuratively, but you get the point. Despite that, the ape-man-ape’s injured nose hurt enough to make him drop P’li. The beast man turned to the visibly-fearless Hilo, who looked like he’d faced an enemy like him before—or was at least aware of the existence of such beasts.

As Lea begged the beastman to let her brother go, Hilo lunged forward, swinging his club at the beastman’s elbow and once it struck, drew a loud roar like a scream. Lea reached up, grabbed P’li and pulled him off the beastman’s shoulder. Sensing P’li being removed from his shoulder, the beastman pushed Hilo down, reached around and grabbed Lea by the neck. Lea tried to break free of its grasp, but it was obviously stronger than her. He finally lifted her onto his shoulder and effortlessly restrained her from kicking her legs about.

But Kimi, who hadn’t done much, grabbed her spear, ran up to the beast and mightily thrust it, with what little strength she might have, into the beasts’ back, and judging by his howls, it went in. But the beastman threw himself forward, also throwing Kimi onto the ground in front of him. She screamed at the big, nasty teeth he bared at her.

But Hilo stepped in front of her and bashed it on the head. It caused a pretty good bump on the head, but no concussion. That didn’t help much, though, and it stood back up. Without hesitating, Hilo bashed the man-ape-man on the side of the head again.

Scrambling to her feet, Kimi grabbed her spear and thrust it into the ape-man-ape’s chest, as Hilo took another of his shark tooth-tipped clubs and slashed the ape-man-ape’s neck. Although she was stunned at the brutality, Kimi admired Hilo and blushed.

As for Kaitan, he was locked in combat with a beastman that resembled one from a certain popular anime, doing his best to ask him some questions. It went about as well as you’d expect.

But he was more than holding his own against his opponent. He threw a left-right-left hook-jab-uppercut combo at the ape’s face, and with his feet far apart and firmly embedded in the dirt, caught the counterattacking ape and suplexed it into the ground behind him. Getting back up, he dropped an elbow on the beast’s chest. As you can probably guess, that didn’t work out so well. So once he got up, he put the ape in a half-Nelson move, trying to bring it down.

The beast freed itself from his grip, grabbed him, lifted him up and tossed him down the trail. But he twisted his body like a monkey and easily landed on a crouched, ape-like stance. He beat the ground, charged the ape, wound his arm up and threw a hard punch to the great ape’s abdomen. He must have hit the diaphragm, as the beast loudly gasped like it had the wind knocked out of it.

But it still backhanded him into the brush. He didn’t like it. But the plants’ smell gave him an idea. He stayed in the brush, crouching in a primal stance, watching the beastman look for him. He stayed quiet. He willed his heart to slow its own rate, taking deep breaths at regular intervals. And they were quiet breaths.

What a dumb beast!

When the beast was still distracted, Kaitan leapt out of the brush, tackling the beast into the dirt. Then he lifted it onto his back and ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT!!!

He stood above the defeated beastman, bellowing and pounding his chest.

That left Julie and the last beastman duking it out. She jumped around, avoiding the beastman’s punches and kicks until she landed in front of him and roundhouse kicked the side of his head. When he swiped at her, she jumped out of the way, only for it to grab her leg and almost crush her skull with the hard swing he used to bring her to the ground, but she caught herself in time. That’s not to say it didn’t hurt, as she could feel a bruise coming on in the right side.

But she got back up again and threw a right hook that he blocked, and then caught his counterpunch. Now up close, she thrust her palm up at his face, connecting with his chin and stunning him. She got out of the way and ran up the nearest tree, crouching on all fours as the ape-man-ape recovered from his injury. Once he found her, he reached up, grabbed the branch and shook it hard. She momentarily lost her balance, but grabbed a vine and swung down, kicking him in the jaw, then swung around for another hit.

Now free from their opponents, Kaitan and Hilo grabbed the beastman from behind and held him in place as Julie came around for another go at him, and she kicked him right in the solar plexus, or wherever it might be. When she landed, the beastman scrambled to get up, but Kaitan tackled him and brought him down, where he started asking questions in the beastman’s language. Unfortunately, the beastman figuratively spat in his face, roared, pushed him off, gathered his comrades—even the one that had its neck slashed and ran off into the brush.

“Is everyone alright?” Julie asked.

It looked like they were. P’li and Lea tightly hugged each other, as they tried to recover from the events that had just unfolded. Kimi threw some things at the ground. She was visibly upset. Julie walked over to her first and after some comforting whispers, helped her up. Hilo retrieved the deer, which hadn’t gone far. Even better, the supplies and equipment were still on their backs.

“How long do you think they had been following us for?” Hilo asked.

“Probably the moment we entered the forest,” said Kaitan. “I tried to ask who sent them, but he told me to fuck off.”

“That’s nice,” Julie said dryly.

“I would not expect a beastman to attack us, much less three,” said Hilo. “They must have been hired by someone.”

“The only way I’ve fought them is if I challenge them and even then they refuse 95% of the time,” Kaitan said, making a pretty hefty guesstimate.

“We should keep going,” said Julie.

“Agreed,” said Kaitan. “Luckily, we’re near the old treehouse. We could stop there for a few minutes, or however long we need.”

“I liked that treehouse,” said Hilo. “It really suited you.”

“Thanks,” said Kaitan. “Alright everyone, we don’t have time to stand around talking! Let’s go!” He gestured them to follow him and set off back on the trail.

They walked for at least another hour, navigating the brush and trees, erasing whatever footprints they left behind as well. Julie and Kaitan let at the front, with Hilo just behind them and Kimi bashfully walking along his side and falling back whenever he noticed her doing that. He rolled his eyes, mentioning something about how infatutated she seemed to be. As for P’li and Lea, they brought up the rear. And although P’li was visibly ashamed, Lea was just as ashamed as he was.

After that hour, they finally happened upon a clearing with a tall tree in the middle. They looked up and saw Kaitan and Julie’s old treehouse, still there, and in good shape.

It was late afternoon now, and the sky was starting to get darkly cloudy, a good sign that there was a high chance of a Greystokian monsoon starting at any moment, Hilo decided that after only a couple hours walk, it would be best that they stop for dinner and the night. Julie and Kaitan agreed. So they helped Kimi, P’li and Lea up into the treehouse, gathered their supplies, left the deer at the foot of the tree and followed.

“Home sweet home,” Kaitan said as he walked into the now-empty treehouse. Everyone had already set their weapons down at the front entrance.

“You used to live here?” P’li asked. “Why did you leave?”

“We felt like it,” said Julie. A thunderclap caught her attention. Ran started pouring minutes later, prompting Hilo to grab a bucket and put it out on the porch. He shrugged upon returning inside.

“Smart move,” said Kaitan. “Are you alright, P’li?”

“Yes,” he said. “Master never taught me to fight, though.”

“Of course,” Julie muttered.

“If you think you’re a burden, don’t,” said Kaitan. “We’ve got plenty of fighting skills between Hilo, Julie and I. And Kimi’s still learning. You’ll be alright.” The Jungle Hero’s words seemed to comfort P’li, as he sat down on a _kapa_ mat next to his sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a long time to get done. I've been very busy the past few weeks and my writing has suffered because of it. Once I finally got some off time, I was able to work on this and some other projects. It took me some time to finally get up the motivation to work on this, but once I did, I was finally able to finish this. Hope you liked it!


	5. Chapter 5

The rain had already come and gone on the south shore by now. The rain did pour so much the beach was dotted with puddles even an hour after the clouds had dissipated in favor of a cloudless afternoon. The moment the rains stopped and the beach mostly dried up, the kids came out to play. The beach was soon filled with their excited shouts and screams as they splashed water at each other, aggravating their parents until they finally dragged a few away from the shrinking puddles. It didn’t matter that much anyway, since the kids all ran into the water.

Meanwhile, the farmers checked their crops and from the look of things, they had nothing to worry about. A little rain never hurt crops, unless the rain was so bad that it drenched the crops. Not so much here. Even the pigs and chickens were satisfied.

More people joined the kids in the ocean. They were all young, restless individuals looking to go surfing. Some of the boys flexed their muscles, boy existent and non-existent to girls looking for some action. Some of those boys ran out into the water to surf. Though the waves weren't big, they were just what those testosterone-fueled boys needed to get the attention of all the _wahine_.

A few more people ran into the water, inadvertently spurred on by the surfing boys. This didn’t happen very often, and most of the other grown-ups were content to work, rest or play.

Manti chose the former.

The Chief sat on his hut’s raised porch, with one foot dangling off to the side and writing on some _kapa_ paper. A basket next to him held other items, like _kapa_ cloths with Pele designs. Trade, basically. And he was keeping inventory of some of the stuff they traded and traded for. As with any civilization, trade was important. And although the Teo and Pele traded many of the items amongst each other, they also traded items neither of them had, like the clothing we previously mentioned. Also, the Pele supposedly made some damn good arrowheads, while the Teo we're supposedly great at making spear and arrow shafts.

Tim the white boy sat next to him, looking over for a moment, then looking back and repeating the process a few times. He wrote down some similar items on his clipboard. Tim’s hair had grown out and he wore it in the same style as many of the other village men. His tattoo was also completed and he wore the same clothing everyone else wore.

Manti occasionally looked up from his work to check on the people in the water, which included two of his sons. They flirted with some of the _wahine_ , flexing their muscles and posing to impress them. “Reminds me of when I courted my wife,” he said.

“You keep talking about her,” said Tim. “What happened to her?”

What should have been an easy question turned out not to be the case. Manti sadly lowered his head and visibly fought to keep the tears from welling up. “Sickness,” he said. “It is… rather painful to discuss.”

“Forget I asked,” said Tim.

“Not your fault,” said Manti. “How is the inventory coming on your end?”

“So far, so good,” said Tim. “I admit that I’m not the best at this, though.”

“Just keep going,” said Manti. “We will be done soon.”

Manti happened to look back up at the water right as Kame, who’d gone in, was coming out, and froze in place. He stared at Kame’s surprisingly-sculpted chest and body. Inside, he wondered why the _kahuna’s_ appearance was so… enticing. Manti always knew he was interested in women; he realized this attraction when he was young, when he got a glance of a woman emerging from the ocean, appearing like the Goddess of the Sea. But here, Kame was doing the same thing. And he found himself feeling the same way then. And it surprised him. Even more surprising, he felt his groin getting tight. He tried to fight it, but it caught Tim’s attention.

“Sir?”

“Apologies,” said Manti. “I must use the facilities.”

Tim watched, puzzled, as Manti got up and left inside the hut.

Across from them, Hana watched furiously. And an even angrier thought formed in her mind.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Lea found Julie in what modern people call the bedroom later on. She was sifting through some things in the closet, a word and concept that didn't exist in Greystokian. She found what she was looking for; a wooden staff with black… Stuff sticking out of the wood. To our modern eyes, this is Julie’s M14 rifle. It’s safe to say that Lea had never seen a rifle before, and she stared at the item like the futuristic-by-her-standards object. “What is that?” Lea asked.

“It’s dangerous, that’s what it is,” Julie replied. “What do you need?”

Lea momentarily hesitated and looked around the room and something to say. “Thanks,” she said.

“You’re welcome!” Julie brightly replied. “What else?”

Lea sighed, sat cross-legged on the floor and rubbed her forehead. “I apologize for my brother,” she said. “He is weak and cannot defend himself.”

Julie looked straight up to stare confusedly Lea, although she didn’t ask why. It gave Lea a chance to continue. “And I hate it! You have seen how he acts, he does not know to defend himself and we have been slaves for so long, he just said he would rather go back!”

“You’re kidding, right?” She pulled her legs in, sat the rifle (on safety) down and looked into Lea’s eyes. “What has P’li done?”

Lea fingered the strap of her top and began to pull it off just a little bit before stopping as if she had second thoughts. “This is not our first escape,” she said.

“That’s usually saved for later, but, that’s surprising,” said Julie.

“There’s a lot to tell,” said Lea. “If you don’t want me to, I don’t have to tell you much. But that is why P’li did not fight back.”

“I don’t need to be told the reason why they didn’t teach him that,” said Julie. “Do you know how to defend yourself?”

“A little,” Lea replied.

“Okay,” Julie said, standing up and pulling Lea to her feet, too. She didn’t have time for Lea’s confusion and bewilderment, putting her dukes up instead. Lea momentarily hesitated and put her dukes up, too. Julie wordlessly gestured her to throw something at her. Lea’s punch was barely a punch at all, if you’re willing to call it that. It was a decent swing of the fist, but not much else, and Julie easily caught it.

“You need to learn how to actually defend yourself,” said Julie.

“I know,” said Lea. “Can you teach me?”

“Absolutely!” Julie replied. “But first, we need to go back downstairs. Everyone else is probably getting the food ready.”

The solar panels that were once on the threehouse’s roof were gone, so there was no electricity. The only light provided came from candles interspersed in spots around the main room, even in the middle, where the men and Kimi were eating some dinner. Julie and Lea came back in to hear Hilo telling a story.

“The only time I ever saw a beastman was when we were on a trek to the east some 5 summers ago,” he said. “We were on patrol outside the old village when we encountered the most foul and pungent stench you could imagine. I swung the torch to my right and found myself face-to-face with a creature which looked like an ape on two legs. I did not scream, but his was rather like a little girl’s.

“Later we encountered it again and discovered it was a female,” he continued. “I felt embarrassed.”

Kaitan, P’li and Kimi laughed, but latecomers Julie and Lea didn’t. She had rejoined the circle. Kaitan playfully smacked the left side of her behind, making her also-playfully glance at him, and she smacked the back of his head. He visibly did not regret it.

Still, she flopped into his lap, throwing her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. He rubbed her legs and lightly massaged her right boob. It is obvious to anyone reading that these two are not only passionately in love, but very attracted to each other.

A fact that was quite obviously lost on P’li and Lea.

They weren’t the only ones uncomfortable with Kai and Julie’s sexy flirting; Hilo sighed and rolled his eyes. Kimi got up and walked off.

“Enough, you two,” said Hilo.

“But I like it when he touches my boob and butt!” Julie whined.

“I know that, but there is a time and place for that!”

“Yes, please,” Lea begged. She looked away, averting her eyes as much as possible. The Jungle Couple reluctantly stopped, but Julie stayed in Kaitan’s lap.

“I used to sit like that—”

“P’LI!!” Lea loudly interrupted, drawing everyone’s attention. Silence hung over sextet for a few minutes, making Lea visibly even more embarrassed, to the point that she stood up and left the circle to be by herself.

“I think it is rather obvious that she is ashamed of her brother,” Hilo whispered to Kaitan. “Anyway, moving on. We will need to find a faster route to the North shore.”

“We already studied the map, Hilo,” said Kaitan. “We’ll be fine.”

“Unless we run into more dangers,” said Hilo. “And why WOULD beastmen attack us if they have no interest in us for the most part? My hypothesis is someone hired them to do it, and it had something to do with our runaways. We should be on guard.”

“Can’t argue with you on that,” said Kaitan. “Huli and I first encountered beastmen shortly after she decided to stay. They captured us, but it turned out to be a mistake and they let us go.”

“ _That_ was an adventure,” said Julie.

“I suspect we will learn who did it as we traverse the island,” said Hilo. “Knowing the mischief you two have gotten yourselves into, of course.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Kaitan laughed while rubbing the back of his head.

“You always say that,” said Hilo. “Oh, well. I suppose now that you have roped me into one of your silly adventures, I might as well cease complaining and go along with it.”

“ _That’s the spirit!_ ” Kaitan and Julie cheerfully shouted, only embarrassing Hilo even more.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

They breakfasted on fruit, eggs, grain and coffee they had stored in their bags. When they were done, they left the treehouse to set out on the second day of their trip. But Kaitan and even Julie lingered to longingly and nostalgically stare at the treehouse before they had to be pulled out of it.

It also stopped raining early last night and the ground had dried up quicker than earlier, partly thanks to the sun and the cloudless day. The other effect was the cooler air temperature. Not a sudden, sharp, deep drop in temp, but cooler than the stifling average Greystoke heat. Still-wet leaves didn’t impede their trek, either.

Some time passed. The sun above them gently moved towards the top of the sky. The jungle was seemingly endless, but that was no issue for them. They had people who knew what they were doing, after all.

When they reached a river, they took the supplies off their deer steeds and carried them across above their heads. They paused on the other side to put the supplies back on the deers’ backs. Large bugs crawled around the deer, only for the Jungle Couple to effortlessly brush them off. They did creep Lea and P’li out, though, except that wasn’t without reason.

“I doubt pulp writers are THAT stupid enough to include giant bugs,” Julie said to herself.

“Hey, I’ve seen worse,” Kaitan cheekily replied.

“THAT DOESN’T HELP, DARLING!!!” Julie snapped.

“Can we eat those bugs?” P’li asked.

“You wanna get sick?” Julie replied.

P’li had been holding a beetle the size of both his combined hands in one hand. He instantly tossed it aside.

“A better idea would be to make you buckskin clothes when he have lunch,” said Kaitan. “Have you thought about living in the jungle?”

“I doubt they could survive as long as you did, Jungle Boy,” said Julie.

“Well, I thought they’d want to, just like Kimi!” Kaitan replied.

“Not sure if that’s gonna work,” said Julie.

“Is the jungle fun?” P’li asked.

“Very, if you like dying,” Hilo said while drying his club off. “Kaitan, please. Focus.” The Jungle Dude responded with a pout.

They kept on, taking a straight-and-narrow worn-down path cutting through the brush. Except for Kaitan, as he took to the trees ahead to scout ahead. He effortlessly jumped from branch to branch (which was par the course), his wildness effortlessly mixing with his human side. P’li couldn’t hide his admiration, and to be honest, groin stiffness, watching Kaitan do his thing. But it irritated Lea again, causing her to shove him almost off the trail. Hilo stepped in between them, putting P’li behind him.

And that gave P’li an opportunity to climb the tree, albeit gingerly. Heading up the rear, Kimi lunged to stop him, but he was halfway up one of the trunks before she could stop him. Even worse, he ran out onto a branch near Kaitan’s. “Kaitan!” Kimi called to Jungle Dude, now a couple trees ahead of them.

By the time he turned around, he noticed that P’li was trying to imitate him. The jungle dude lunged for P’li amidst the Julie’s and Lea’s screams, but effortlessly caught P’li, then shifted him so that he carried him like a bride. The situation embarrassed Kaitan, at least a little bit, as he rolled his eyes. Annoyed would be the better word.

“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, P’LI!?” Julie angrily shouted. For a moment, it looked like her teeth had momentarily become razor sharp.

“I wanted to be like Kaitan!” P’li replied.

“I can see that!” Julie replied. “Quit dawdling, and let’s get moving!”

“I’ll lead him over the branches!” Kaitan called back.

“BRING HIM DOWN HERE!” Julie snapped.

It didn’t stick. Kaitan led P’li through the branches, much to everyone else’s consternation. It also meant that Kimi and Lea had to walk next to each other, which was visibly unconscionable for the both of them. They stared and glared at each other all throughout the trek, refusing to even speak to each other. Although she had been visibly embarrassed at her brother, Lea could take some solace in how quickly he was getting the hang of jumping from branch to branch.

Although Kaitan had mastered it so long ago it was instinct to him, P’li was a little more careful. And he looked happy.

Finally, they emerged from the Southern Forest to the Southern Plain. The vast green stretched out for miles on end, only broken by intermittent patches of what were obviously trees, rocks and animals. The plain dipped a few feet below them, as the Southern Forest was on a rise in the ground. The plain itself was made of rolling hills, dips and not much else, although the grass seemed to vary in height. It was short for the most part, clearly caused by the grazing deer that could be seen dotting the plain. Taking it all in P’li and Lea’s mouths gaped wide open. The Southern Plains’ sight was of no big deal for everyone else, but this was something P’li and Lea wanted to take in.

“Alright, let’s get some lunch!” said Julie.

As much as they wanted to hunt the deer like predators, Hilo didn’t let them, to their disappointment. Instead, they found a deer and shot it. They made a fire to cook the deer meat while Kaitan talked to P’li about how liberating hunting like a wild animal is. Hilo had to smack him upside the head and focus, since they were already behind schedule and cooking deer meat required attention.

Cooking the meat lasted an hour. Kaitan and Hilo took turns turning the venison on the spit. In the meantime, Julie began to teach Lea a few things on self-defense. Kaitan did the same for P’li. Hilo and Kimi sat next to each other. Again, Kimi fawned over Hilo, much to his dismay.

Teaching the twins self-defense was legitimately difficult. If Julie thought Lea couldn’t punch, she was surprised to see P’li. It would be hard to describe them as such, and even harder to compare them to arm flailing. Kimi couldn’t stop herself from laughing, and it got to a point where Lea ran up to Kimi and grabbed her top’s strap so she could glare at the Japanese-Australian jungle girl. Of course, Kimi didn’t take too kindly to that either, and she grabbed Lea’s cloth. They had to be separated for their own good.

Punching wouldn’t help much right now. They had to start with footwork. So Julie got to work on that while Kaitan took his turn to turn the venison (ha). Hilo got to work on their new outfits with some deerskin they had already brought with them.

“Bend your knees,” Julie said. It was an easy enough instruction. But then Julie tested them by sticking her foot in between their legs. Knocking them down was easier than making a PB&J sandwich. The twins slightly shrank at Julie’s disapproving expression.

“Bend. Your. Knees!” she said. “Spread your feet far apart. Shoulder length is a good starting point.”

“Like this?” Lea asked, bending her legs so that—

“I mean width,” said Julie.

“How do you mess _that_ up?” Kimi remarked. Lea didn’t understand the Aussie, but she could tell she was being insulted just from her tone, and glared at her.

“Try it again,” Julie sighed while she put Lea and P’li’s feet where they were supposed to be. “Now then, bend your knees. Make sure the shin of your forward leg is s—don’t turn your feet in, turn them out! Like this!” She quickly got in her own stance to show them before going back to her original stance.

It took maybe half an hour before they finally had the proper stance. And it was another 15 minutes before she was able to teach them how to thrust their palms into their foes’ faces. And it only took seconds for her to remember she’s not supposed to be in front of them when they do that or else risk a broken nose herself.

To her relief, the meat was eventually finished. The lessons ended so they could eat. The party sat around the impromptu, makeshift firelight to eat the deer meat along with more fruits and island veggies.

It was also about now that Lea and P’li discovered the Jungle Couple had a sense of humor about how they lived.

“If I’m gonna die in the jungle, I’d rather die in the trees!” Julie laughed.

“Well, you have that choice,” Kaitan replied. “But then again, I was too busy playing Hilolilo to care.”

“And I’m a bit too caught up in being better than Jane,” said Julie. “I mean, I’m not as surprised at the stuff I get into. Sometimes I wonder if someone’s telling my story in another world!”

“That is disturbing,” said Lea. “I do not want to think about it.”

“Well, to tell the truth, if I had any regrets, they’re long gone,” said Julie. “But now that we’ve been living in the cabin, I wonder if we made the right choice, Kaitan.”

Kaitan sighed and looked at himself. By now, he was too much Tarzan and not enough Lord Greystoke to fully go back to Winnipeg, something he discovered when he had to deal with Aunt Brenda. But remembering the wild’s freedom brought the exhilaration back. And he thought those modern clothes were stifling.

“Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts for a moment,” he said when he realized the others were staring at him.

“Well to be fair, if I wanted to live my life like a pulp fiction archetype, I would’ve written them,” Julie snarked.

“The Gods had plans for you,” he said.

“Sometimes I wonder if the Gods are lonely virgins,” she said.

“What is pulp fiction?” P’li asked.

“Bad stories printed on bad paper where I come from,” said Julie.

“Well I thank the Gods as much as I can for you,” said Kaitan. “And for not letting me get eaten by nasty wild dogs.”

“Aw, thanks, sweetie!” she cooed, pinching his cheek at the same time.

“Is he why you stayed, Huli?” Lea asked.

“Well, that and I like it here,” said Julie. “I mean, aside from the risk of getting an infection from a simple scratch, the possibility I could die at anytime of miss my immunizations, it’s much better than modern society.”

“So is jungle living a good idea?” P’li asked.

“Depends on whether you’re ready for it, or if you like being ready to die at a moment’s notice,” said Kaitan.

“This is all well and good, but when are we going to reach the North Shore?!?” Lea asked.

“Calm down, little cousin,” said Hilo. “We’ll get there on our time.”

“Oh, no. You don’t mean—”

“We get there when we get there!”

Lea clearly knew the phrase and concept. And from her sigh, grimace and facepalm, it was obvious that she didn’t like it. But she had more. “Then why have you obviously been out of action for the past several moons?”

“Well, it’s a big island!” Kaitan replied. “We can’t be everywhere!”

It was a point Lea obviously didn’t like conceding. But she wasn’t done yet, “I may not have seen much, but I saw you had turned your backs on the jungle! The great Jungle Heroes never once abandoned it, and your casual attitude towards it—”

“That’s enough!” Julie loudly declared and stamping her bare feet. “You wanna get going? Fine! Get on the gods-cursed deer right now!”

Her tone was like that of a mom on her last legs with some particularly raucous kids on an equally particularly busy and stressful day. So it wasn’t surprising when Lea scrambled to her feet and climbed on the deer with the least amount of gear packed on it. Sighing, Kaitan finished his meat, stood up, doused the fire and left what was left of the carcass for the scavenger dogs, which were all surrounding the campsite.

“Hate to waste a good deer,” he said. There wasn’t much else he could do besides douse the fire, clean up and encourage everyone else to leave the campsite.


	6. Chapter 6

Nobody had anything else to say after the mess at the campsite for the next hour’s trek. As much as he himself wanted to, Hilo didn't want to hurt the group’s already-fragile and worsening cohesion, even if he wanted to loudly berate Julie for throwing a fit. He did express this in a single expression to Kaitan, and could see the Jungle _haole_ White Boy didn’t have much to say about it, either. He just shrugged, rolled his eyes and kept on going.

He wanted to yell at Julie for her behavior earlier. This whole trip was becoming an incoherent mess thanks to everyone’s egos. It was a hastily-and-shoddily planned mess of a trip that was getting worse by the minute. The only saving grace was their charges’ excitement to see Kaitan and Huli in their famed get-ups, and even then, Hilo was a bit perturbed at their costume choices. It’s been shown before, but just about everyone in the village thought they looked rather silly.

Hilo wasn’t happy about the way he was feeling, either. Aside from the fact that she was rather cute, he knew Huli and Kaitan wouldn’t be happy if he obliged the other _haole_ Kimi’s apparent attraction to him. He was 9 summers older than her. Just the thought made him shiver.

In any case, he rubbed his hands together while he followed the bickering jungle couple, hoping that something would come along to give the trip not only some cohesion, but a sense of urgency.

Where in the underworld was a beastman when you needed one?

“Oi!” he finally called out in a moment that must have seen random to everyone else. “This mission is turning bad. Maybe we should turn back?”

The party stopped dead in its tracks in the middle of a stride, turned around and stared at Hilo like he was mad. That didn’t matter. He stood firm, even though he was almost laughing at how ridiculous Kaitan and Huli looked in their outfits. He suppressed a giggle and waited for them to finally get over their surprise and shock to speak.

“Huh?” Huli asked in her native language.

“You don’t get to being the Chief’s right-hand-man by being ignorant of how people are feeling,” said Hilo. “I can tell when a farmer is frustrated with his crops, even when he puts on a satisfied front. I’ve seen warriors declaring they were ready to fight and die, but when you look at their shaking knees, you know they are frightened, and justifiably so. YOU look like you can barely stand this journey. I see it all over! Perhaps it would be best if we ended this journey and let those two continue on their own. They made it that far on their own, did they not?”

“With major dehydration,” Huli reminded him.

He didn’t have a good response, but that wasn’t going to stop him. “I am sure the Village will let them stay,” he said. “They do not have to like it, of course. Just like a good percentage of the village does not like Kaitan.”

This made the Jungle Dude grab the back of his hair. He had bangs in the front and sideburns/chops extending past his lower jaw, making him look a little animesque for modern viewers. He let go of that makeshift ponytail and it dropped back down.

“I wish you hadn’t reminded me,” he said.

“Oh, of course,” said Hilo. “Apologies.”

“I don’t WANT to live in the Teo village!” Lea replied. “I want to go home!” She marched up to him and got in his face. Even now he was thinking about how big a mess this was.

“It is an option, but one we must consider,” said Hilo. “From what it looks like, we will not make it to the North Shore unless we can… Forget it. I am not pleased with this mission so far, and I  admit that we could do better and perhaps turn around.”

“I don’t _want_ to,” said Lea.

“We have to keep going,” said Kaitan. “Those beastmen are probably still tracking us.”

“I think I am being outvoted,” Hilo said to himself. “But as I said, I fear this journey may become metaphorically directionless, even if we reach the North Shore.”

“I can’t argue with that,” said Kaitan. “… How are we directionless?”

“Are you even interested in this?” Hilo asked. “It is obvious you are not!”

The discussion devolved into a three-way argument between Hilo, Kaitan and Huli. More like one-versus-two, but beside the point. This left Kimi, P’li and Lea standing off to the side to watch. The three of them glanced at one person, then the next, then to the arguing older travelers and then finally back to each other.

Reaching behind her head, Kimi sighed and scratched the back of her head. She shook her head. Then she turned to the two deer munching on grass, not paying any attention to them. She turned back to Lea and gestured with her head to the deer. Lea looked at the deer, then back to Kimi, then back to the deer, then back to Kimi. Kimi shrugged, Lea bunched her lips up and P’li absent-mindedly looked around at the surrounding grasslands. A group of wild chickens, some of which had already shown signs of evolving into a different species of chicken, scurried past. A smack at P’li’s shoulder brought him back to Lea. She pointed at the deer. P’li turned to the deer, then back to Lea and then back to the deer. He nodded.

The younger trio quietly turned away from the arguing trio and moved toward the deer. But P’li kept looking out into the distance. Seeing this, Lea sighed, rolled her eyes and head and smacked P’li again. But then she caught a glimpse at at what he saw.

Four deer-mounted figures stood watching them off in the distance. All three of them clutched their chests and backed off the deer. Their gazes fixed on the figures off in the distance, and they didn’t turn around until they accidentally backed into the arguing older trio. A shout arose in Huli’s throat but quickly and instantly died when she caught a glimpse of the figures watching them.

Hilo gestured to the deer and the trio ran over to them. Hilo grabbed a sling and a rock, Kaitan the M14 and Huli a bow and quiver. Those three lined up in front of the other three, but not before tying their ankles together. That younger trio grimaced amongst each other. However, Huli turned around so that should glare at them, freezing them in place.

All three of the older young adult trip raised their weapons, pointing them at their watchers. On Hilo’s suggestion, Huli released an arrow that landed an arm’s length from the foot of the lead deer. They could see it flinch just a little bit.

Kaitan turned to Kimi. She searched through one of the supply satchels on a deer back until she found some binoculars. Kaitan grabbed those binoculars, ran back to the others and looked through the binoculars. Hilo grabbed them and looked through them for a few moments, then Julie grabbed them and also looked through them, all before Kaitan grabbed them back.

He lowered them after a few moments. Then he handed them to Hilo, who handed them to Huli and back to Kaitan. All three nodded to each other, then turned to the others. They glanced in between each other, then the older three slowly led the younger trio up the small crest.

They slowly approached the men, keeping their weapons at the ready. The men, wearing leaf and wood armor-like clothing, with animal skin undershirts and leggings. The palefaces waited until they were at the crest of the mount. Then Hilo stepped forward, raised his hand and extended it to the men.

“I am Hilo, second-in-command to Manti, High Chief of the Teo Confederation,” he said. “Paradise Villagers, please, do not be alarmed by our presence. We were simply making a journey. We ask that you provide us safe passage.”

“Greetings, Hilo,” said the leader. “I am Lokan. Unfortunately, you have entered our territory and we cannot guarantee you passage. If you need passage, then you must meet with The Captain so we may discuss matters. However, you will be hour guests.”

“But this is Teo territory,” Hilo said to himself. Despite that, he looked at Kaitan and Huli. They glanced at each other. Both of them frowned to each other, but nodded anyway. “Lead the way.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

They reached Paradise Village a hand of time later. There were walls and a gate at the end of the village that faced the grassland. Sentries patrolled the top of the wall, pointing spears or arrows down at the ground. The trees making up the wall were whittled and carved to sharp tips at the top.

The Paradise Village scouts stopped in front of the large double doors. They swung inward, loudly creaking until it was wide enough for all of them to go through. Logan turned to the company and nodded, urging his deer steed onwards and into the village.

Simple, wooden and straw-made houses lined the main avenue at the entrance. The avenue led to a centra plaza, dominated by a pavilion. Their “guides” dismounted as young pages stepped forward to lead the deer away, probably to a stable. Lokan gestured to the company. He started walking towards the center of the village with the company following.

People came out of their huts to line the sides of the avenue. Their faces slightly hardened and some of the women, modestly dressed for the weather in _kapa_ clothes, held their kids close to them. Those who had kids, that is. Those kids watched, tried to get closer or hid behind their moms. Some of the men glowered or glared at them, which caused P’li to hide behind, then between Hilo and Kaitan. The Teo lieutenant patted his right shoulder, glanced at him and kept that hand on his shoulder. The company kept their eyes pointed straight towards the main plaza.

Once at the main plaza, they could see the other end of the village. There was no fence, just jungle. Lokan gestured at the ground at the end of the open-air pavilion and the company sat down in an arc with Hilo in the middle, Huli and Kaitan on his left, and P’li, Lea and Kimi on his right. He turned and nodded at the younger trio.

Lokan sat down in front of them. Other attendants left their personal effects at the edge of the pavilion. More people joined them. They all sat down behind the company.

“So where’s the food?” Huli asked, drawing slightly-amused chuckles from the crowd.

“Soon,” said Lokan. “You are surprise guests, please forgive us for seeming lack of hospitality.”

“We want to speak with the Captain,” said Hilo. “Where is he?” A collective gasp escaped everyone’s throats, making Hilo’s eyes widen first, then he cringed. “My apologies. When might we have the honor of seeing the Captain?” Huli and Kaitan sighed in relief, and the crowd’s gasp died.

“When the Captain wants to,” said Lokan. He turned away, gesturing to some of the women. They bowed and walked away with a stiff gait and straight posture. Their dresses were tight at around the calves and ankles.

Lokan sat in front of them. He raised his eyebrow and then asked, “What are you doing in our territory?”

“Going for a nice stroll,” said Kaitan.

“It was our Chief’s idea,” said Hilo. “He believes I spend too much time at the village and I need to get out more.”

“And that is it?” Lokan asked. “Why are those two with you? And sister Kimi?”

“Oh right, this is the cult that kidnapped her,” said Julie. “Well, she’s MY sister from another mister, so we brought her along.”

“So you are only walking across the island for no reason?”

“Well, Chief Manti did tell me that if we ran into anyone else, we may discuss our relationships with them,” said Hilo. “We are still hoping to trade with you, especially after we let you participate in the last Island Games that went so… poorly, and kidnapping Ms... Fuu-hi-oka.”

“That language needs a ‘J’ sound,” Huli said to herself.

“Why did it look like you were fighting amongst each other?” Lokan asked.

“Because we had somehow become disinterested in our journey,” said Hilo, “Like a storyteller who is excited, but then decides to skip everything else because he is either disinterested in his rather lousy story or cannot remember how it is supposed to go.

“The worst part is, these two palefaced idiots are the heroes.” He gestured towards Kaitan and Huli.

“Outstanding,” said Lokan. “But why did you shoot at us?”

“First, it was a warning shot,” said Kaitan.

“Second, you looked like you were trying to intimidate us or something,” said Hilo.

“Our apologies!” Lokan hastily breathed. “But we saw you were in our territory with Sister Kimi and—”

“You kidnapped me the first time,” said Kimi, “I’m not coming back!”

The crowd gasped and whispers immediately followed. They all ran along the same line: no one interrupts a guard! Lokan clearly didn’t like it either, glaring at Kimi with wide-open eyes.

Hilo figuratively stepped in and said, “Forgive her, she is young. And this is the first time I have heard her speak our shared tongue.”

“We’re terribly sorry,” said Huli. “She shouldn’t interrupt anyone, not even her unrepentant kidnapper.” Kimi sniggered against Lokan’s stare.

“Sorry, we’ve had a rough time,” said Kaitan. “We ran into some beastmen yesterday and chased them off.”

“The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it sounds,” remarked Hilo.

“What’s ridiculous?” Kaitan asked.

“The fact that we chased beastmen off,” said Hilo. “I have seen what beastmen can do when they are not holding back and I can tell you that it would leave you without an appetite for seven Suns.”

“Oh, right,” Kaitan said.

“Perhaps your reputation precedes you, Kaitan,” said Lokan. “I heard tell you saved some slaves some months ago.”

“Enslaved by my aunt and uncle,” Kaitan replied.

“Is that why rumors persist that you turned your back on the island?” Logan asked with obvious smugness on his face against Kai’s glare.

“Enough,” said Hilo. “Whatever Kaitan does in his personal life is his alone. We are here to discuss safe passage to the North and relations between us, the Teo, and your tribe. Focus! Also, your hospitality could use some work. Your job is make us feel comfortable and welcome. And you have not provided us with food yet.”

“My apologies,” said Lokan. “Where is the food, anyway? Ah! Here it comes!”

Several women brought trays of pork, chicken, venison, pineapples, coconuts, rice, apples, bananas, potatoes, yams, broccoli, tomatoes, corn and wheat.

Hilo froze with half a coconut in his hand to stare at the food. Not the food he was familiar with, but the others. His eyes darted around.

“Is there something wrong?” one of the women asked.

“No, nothing is wrong,” he said with a reassuring smile. The woman bowed and walked away.

“Oh my spirits, this chicken’s delicious!” Huli happily said with a full mouth.

“Where did you get the rice?” Hilo asked.

“We grow it ourselves,” said Lokan.

“May I see the rice paddies?”

“No, you may not,” Lokan said, sounding like he was trying to mask his anger.

“Why not?” Hilo asked.

“We grow our own food to sustain ourselves and we have plenty,” said Lokan.

“If that is the case, then you may have a surplus,” said Hilo. “We could start by trading your surplus rice for—”

“No thank you,” said Lokan. “My apologies for sounding rude, but only the Captain may negotiate trade. Captain’s orders.”

“Fair enough,” said Hilo. “Where is he right now?”

“That is for him to know and you to find out,” said Lokan. “But, we could ask him where he is.” He gestured to one of the women. He said something to her and sent her away.

“Who IS the Captain?” Kaitan asked.

“The Captain is the man who saved us,” said Lokan.

“ _The Captain saved us_ ,” the crowd automatically and monotonously answered back, drawing the travelers’ attention.

“You know, those other two have not spoken yet,” Lokan said while pointing at P’li and Lea. “What are their names?”

“P’—”

“Pulani and Lilo,” Huli interrupted. The twins gazed at her, then at each other and then nodded.

“Nice names,” said Lokan. “Do you like those names?”

“Yes, we do,” Lea said, forced to go along with Julie’s idea. “Our mother named us after two of her friends.”

“That is a good way to name your children,” said Lokan. “Couldn’t you agree, P’li?”

“Yes—my name is not P’li,” he said. He was about to give it away, but caught himself.

“Some mean kids have him that nickname,” said Lea. “I don’t like it.”

“Too bad,” said Lokan.

“Now, Mr. Lokan,” said Hilo, “I assume you may have been wondering why we asked if we could see your rice paddies. Well, since the Paea controlled most of them, after their collapse, we have been trying to make sure they are accounted for. We have perhaps found a minority, but we intend to find them. Some of them are controlled by independent former Paea villages, while the Pele and Teo have split the rest that are accounted for.”

“Do you need our assistance in locating them?” Lokan asked.

“I did not intend to ask, but that you for your offer. But I assume The Captain will have final word on it?”

“Correct,” said Lokan. “In the meantime, how is the food?”

“It’s good!” Huli said through a full mouth. “Do you always prepare food in case of guests?”

“Of course,” said Lokan. “We have plenty, after all.” Huli couldn’t help but turn around, when she saw a little kid with a bloated belly. Some of the women hurriedly moved in front of the kid, bringing a healthier-looking kid with them.

Then there was a commotion. At first it was quiet, but it spread from one end of the village to the pavilion, growing from whispers to out-loud speaking. The villagers stood up, facing the east, gently competing for a view of whatever was coming. Several men who wore the same kind of armor Lokan wore, simultaneously brought an ornate wooden chair to the head of the pavilion, sat it down and took up positions flanking the chair. Other men moved to form a ring and a path around the crowd leading out to whomever was coming their way.

The small company stood. They respectfully stood back to wait for the Very Important Person coming their way.

The cheering grew louder in successive waves coming their way. The crowd impeded their view, but only for a moment, as the armor-wearing ‘bouncers’ held them back, giving the travelers a better view.

The man approaching wore a tattered cruise ship captain’s jacket, a _kapa_ kilt and carrying a staff. He waved at the crowd, intermingling with the occasional villager. They seemed to be enthralled each time he came close. A few women and men even fainted at the sight of him. His smile made people melt in his presence and his touch threw them into hysterics. And he kept approaching the pavilion with some more men flanking both his sides. He turned around, waving at the crowd every now and then until he finally reached the pavilion, where he strode up the dais and took his seat on the chair.

The travelers felt like they had to kneel in front of him, so they did. They momentarily averted their eyes as if his mere presence compelled them to do so. But they turned back towards him, making eye contact with him. Kimi shrank in his presence and tried to get behind Huli. Lea and P’li almost dealt with the same effect. But Hilo and Kaitan kept them still. They momentarily waited, then the Captain gestured for his villagers to be seated, and the travelers followed.

“Welcome to Paradise Village, representatives of the Teo,” he said. “I trust our hospitality has been good?”

“Lokan could be a little more polite,” said Hilo. “But other than that, it has indeed been good.”

“Perfect,” said the Captain. “What do you need from me?”

“A few requests, Captain,” said Hilo. “First, my name is Hilo. Second, as Chief Manti’s lieutenant, it has befallen on me to negotiate a few things with you, trade being chief among them. We do not have to do it right now, but—”

“I understand,” said the Captain. “Oh, I apologize for interrupting you.”

“No offense taken,” said Hilo. “As long as we can make some kind of deal that benefits both our factions.”

“Of course,” said the Captain. “And it is an honor to meet Kaitan and Julie. Your reputations precede you.”

“Thanks, I guess,” said Huli.

“Word has it you’d abandoned the jungle though,” the Captain said rather smugly, leaning forward in his chair. “Or am I mistaken?”

“How we live our lives is our business,” said Kaitan. “Huli came as part of a scientific expedition, after all. If she wanted to work with them, it’s her decision.

“Now, we have some questions for you,” said Kaitan. “Where did you guys come from?”

“We are shipwreck survivors,” said the Captain. “It is through my leadership that we were able to survive and establish our village and in doing so, I saved everyone!”

“ _The Captain saved us_!” the crowd called back.

“For now, we want to be left alone. But, I am willing to discuss trade and other issues with Mr. Hilo,” said the Captain.

“Thank you,” said Hilo, “For everything.”

“And thank you for coming,” said the Captain. “By the way, what are your friends’ names? Besides Sister Kimi, of course.”

“The boy is named Pulani and the girl is Lilo,” said Huli. “We picked them up a couple days ago after running into beastmen.”

“I thought beastmen preferred to keep to themselves?” the Captain asked. “No matter. We already have lodgings ready for you. Please, enjoy your stay!”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

A mob of kids gathered in front of the women’s house’s window, gazing in at Huli as she washed herself off, still clad in her standard-issue jungle girl outfit, until she noticed them, and scared them off. Huffing and puffing, she stormed over to the window and pulled the wooden shades down. She shook her head, went back to the wash bin, dipped a rag into the soapy water and continued to wash herself.

The small, one-story, one-room hut, which is probably the more appropriate term for this abode, didn’t look like much, but it comfortably housed Huli, Kimi and Lea, giving them all a sense of privacy and closeness at the same time. Lea sat on a chair next to one of the windows, and Kimi read a book, sitting next to the stone fireplace. The rest of the house was made up of wood made from native trees, with a bed in one corner and straw futons in two others. A table sat in the other corner, and a stove sat between that table and the other futon. That was how it was placed at the moment, but Kimi stood up and moved the futon away from the stove.

The men had a similar cabin.

“I swear, those stupid kids!” Huli breathed as she finished up. “Fucking puberty.”

“But everyone seems so nice,” said Lea.

“They are!” said Huli. “I just don’t trust the Captain of his crewmen. This is a cult. I mean, they kidnapped you, Kimi!”

“How do you know this?” Lea asked.

“I’ve seen the signs,” said Julie. “Just keep a low profile. If things go right, we’ll be able to leave.”

“Do you think the Captain and Lokan already suspect me?” Lea asked.

“The question is, did they fall for our lies,” said Huli, “And the answer’s obviously a no. Aside from the trade thing, of course. But it looks like Hilo’s got it under control.”

She quickly dried herself off, stood up and walked up to the cabin’s front door. Upon opening it, she encountered a crowd of excited-looking women and girls all eager to get a glimpse of her. Huli smiled and walked outside to greet them.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

“Your village is impressive, Captain,” Hilo said amidst the tour the previously-mentioned Captain gave him and Kaitan.

“I am glad you see it that way,” said the Captain.

The people they passed by went about their daily routines, albeit looking up to catch a glimpse of the Captain whenever he walked past. They had visibly acclimated and adjusted to their new island lifestyle, settling into their world and looking like the Teo tribe, albeit with different skin colors. Both the Jungle Dude and Hilo grinned, happy to see them adjusting so well.

“They look happy,” said Hilo.

“Of course!” said the Captain.

But Kaitan caught a glimpse of a man avoiding their gaze. An older man, probably in his late 70s, looked up and briefly glared at the Captain, then looked away before the Captain could notice.

“Unfortunately, some of us do not like outsiders,” said the Captain. Hilo scrunched his nose, while Kaitan rolled his eyes in an ‘I told you so’ manner. “As I was saying, we grow our own food.”

“That reminds me,” said Hilo, “Lokan said you have rice fields not too far from here. Is there a chance that we may be allowed to see them?”

The Captain laughed. “Not yet,” he said. “There are things we must do first.”

“I wonder what that means,” Kaitan whispered to Hilo. “By the way, who does the hunting?”

“Our warriors,” said the Captain. “Most people do not go outside. It is too dangerous.”

“I think most people can handle it,” said Kaitan.

Three twentysomething-aged women then walked up to the Captain and glomped him. This appeared normal until one of them mouthed something to both of them with a desperate look on her face that changed to glee when the Captain looked at her. Hilo momentarily turned to look at Kaitan, but the Jungle Dude just shrugged.

She had mouthed the words ‘Help us’.


	7. Chapter 7

_Several years ago,_

The ship was gone.

The surviving passengers, washed ashore on the beach of this strange, tropical island, could only look on in disbelief and horror. The faint, distant outline of a cruise ship could be seen going down in the distance. Screams and gasps escaped all their lips and throats. It only took a few moments before the distant image of the ship disappeared, never to be seen again. The only evidence their ship ever existed was the massive storm off in the vicinity of the ship. Although it was sunny on the island they were on, the far-off gray clouds masked rough seas.

“Is everyone okay?” the captain asked while he walked through the survivors. Murmurs came every now and then, but a few of them were murmurs of thanks. The captain didn’t focus on them, he simply raised his hand in acknowledgement and moved on. His crew attended to the rest of the survivors, which he hadn’t counted yet.

“First mate Leo,” he said, turning to that first mate. “I need you to take some of the crew and see how many of them know how to survive in the wild.”

“Yes, captain!” Leo replied.

“We’ll need to find more like that among the passengers,” said the captain. “Take roll and see if we lost anyone.”

“I fear we may have,” said Leo.

“Then we will have to move on,” said the captain.

“We’re going to need food and water for everyone,” said Leo.

“There are fish in the ocean,” said the captain, “And coconuts in those trees. Get to work.”

“I’ll find some men who can do it,” said Leo. He departed and began to gather some of the crewmen to start fishing and gathering coconuts to drink out of.

But the captain sighed and adjusted his cap. He looked around. More crewmembers helped the survivors, many of whom were wounded. They did the best they could to treat their wounds and injuries using the first aid kits they brought with them on the lifeboats. Those lifeboats were anchored offshore. “There’d better be someone stupid enough to get all the medicine off the ship,” he said to himself.

An old woman staggered up to him, shakily gripping her cane and reaching out for someone to hold her. The captain gently took her hand and helped her keep her balance until she stood back up. “Are you alright, ma’am?” he asked.

“Bless you, Captain,” she said. “You saved us all.”

“Well, I was only doing my job, and—”

“We are forever in your debt.”

“Okaaaayyyy,” he said. “I’ll need to speak to the rest of the passengers.” He said this without so much as looking at the old woman.

Sometime later, he gathered his crew and they examined a map. A crewman gave him the coordinates and, with a compass to help, looked for their location on said map. “Okay, so, we should be around, here—Oh, no.”

“What is it, captain?” First Mate Leo asked.

“Look,” said the captain. He pointed at their estimated location. It was all blue.

“This is impossible,” Leo breathed.

“Are you sure?” the captain asked. “Well, the point is, we don’t have a radio. We’ll have to find a way to make contact with any ships. I have a bad feeling we’re going to be here a while.”

Leo’s face turned angry. “Captain, I have served alongside you for 15 years,” he said. “I’ve never seen you be so defeatist.”

“That’s because I might know where we are,” he said as he turned to his left, and what he saw confirmed his suspicion. There was a deer, almost the size of a reindeer, walking out onto the beach. It had its fawn in tow, and it turned to see the strange creatures sharing the beach with it. The captain took his hat off, sighed, rubbed his face and looked around. “An island no one can find, with strange animals. Yeah, I think I know where we are.”

“So what are we going to do?” Leo asked.

“Well, this isn’t  _Lost_ ,” said the captain. “But it’s also not quite  _Gilligan’s Island_. We’ll have to start worrying about our long-term situation. Don’t stop trying to contact the outside world, but we’re not going to stay on this beach. We’ll have to tell the passengers we’re moving inland. Round them up, I’m going to make the announcement.”

A few minutes later, the passengers were gathered on the beach, with their eyes and ears all trained on the captain, thus making his next words unnecessary. “Your attention, please!” he called atop a rather large rock. “I am sorry for what’s happened today. On behalf of the ship line, I personally apologize and claim responsibility for the sinking of our ship. And, from what my crewmembers have told me, about 13% of our fellow passengers.

“However, I want to make it clear that we’re not going to stay on this beach. Yes, we are going to try and contact the outside world, but judging by our present location, it may be some time before we’re able to find rescue. That is why we are moving off this beach, and heading inland.” The passengers murmured amongst each other. The voices began to rise, but the captain raised his hands. “I know, I know, I’m just as nervous, scared and frustrated as you are. But, I do not want to see anyone else die today. We are going to press forward, pull our strengths and resources together, and survive!”

The crowd was still for a moment before the first murmurings of agreement could be heard. They all started to agree with each other, and it wasn’t long before a loud, triumphant, hopeful cheer escaped their throats. The captain smiled and rubbed his hand through his hair in relief. Of course, this was the easy part. Now, the hard part came.

“Alright, take some time to gather your things,” he said. “Once we’re done, we’ll move inland.” He turned to some of his crewmembers. “Some of you will have to stay on the beach. Although, we can probably just switch off every now and then. Yeah, that’ll work.”

“Great,” said the crewmember who was picked to do this first.

The passengers gathered up their things and followed the captain off the beach, and inland.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

_Present day_

Manti kept certain thoughts out of his head the best way he knew how; by working. Administrative duties never ceased, even in the midst of a potential problem—as far as he knew, ‘crisis’ wasn’t the right word to describe the situation with the escaped slaves. He was certain Hilo, Huli and Kaitan could handle it.

He placed his quill pen close to his chin as more thoughts raced in his head. This helped him a lot, allowing him to focus on the task at hand—inventory on the village’s grain supply. Koa warriors examined the palm tree baskets holding rice, macadamia, taro, pineapples, barley and other grains. The usual Teo staple, and a fisherman walking up to his hut, carrying a fish-filled basket with the help of his son, and placed it next to the rest of the food starting to take up space next to the his hut.

“A large catch today, Tito?”

“Of course, Chief!” Tito the fisherman replied. “A school of them, all down to the south near the edge of the magic barrier.”

“Ah,” said Manti.

A magic barrier covers the island, protecting it from the outside world (and hopefully rising sea levels), and is why it’s so hard to find. It leaves the island invisible to the naked eye, most aerial and all satellite imagery from the outside. It could and should have been “discovered” earlier, but members of the shipping and aviation industries have kept it secret. The jig is up, of course.

“Have the outsiders ‘discovered’ anything about it, yet?” Tito laughed.

“No,” Manti replied with a laugh of his own. “They have their heads so far up their collective asses to even admit it exists.”

Tito heartily laughed a full-bodied diaphragm laugh. “I hope you do not say that to them directly, Sir,” he said. “They are coming today, after all.”

“I forgot,” Manti sighed, throwing his head backwards. “Well, they have a sense of humor, so I do not expect them to be offended. Come to think of it, they never have been.”

“Good point,” said Tito. He heard a commotion on the northern end of the village, so he turned around and looked. The researchers emerged from the brush, carrying their equipment and already starting _ha’a_ /haka disputes with some of the warriors. Knowing that one of the researchers was a former warrior himself, Manti concluded that may have been a reason they liked to do that. So he shrugged and left well enough alone. He even ignored Tito making some gossipy comment about how he saw Hilo and Lilo off by themselves one time, but that was also none of his business.

That is, until he heard a knock on his hut’s entrance. He briefly looked up to see Chris, the new researcher doctor, sheepishly wave ‘hello’ to him, before turning to Tim to shake his hand. Both men conversed in their native language, which Manti understood enough to know they were just saying ‘hello’. Outsiders from the shipping industry introduced English, although it hasn’t flourished.

“ _Aloha_ ,” said Chris, walking up to the Chief to introduce himself. “How are you today, Chief Manti?”

“I am doing well,” the Chief replied in English. “Did Tim tell you that I speak some English?”

“Not really,” Chris replied. “Okay, just so you know, we have a few more Doctors Without Borders staffers going around the village, okay?”

“Good to hear,” said Manti. “I assume you are here for my check-up?”

“Yep!” said Chris.

Chris put his equipment down on the floor and prepared while Manti removed his _ʻAhu ʻula_. Chris quickly got to work and Tim picked up where Manti had left off with his work. He cooperated with Chris, letting the doctor fully examine him. He seemed to linger on his back, but other than that, Chris seemed to be pretty satisfied with the Chief’s overall health. He didn’t even react when Chris stuck a few needles in his arm, although he definitely didn’t look happy about having to do it, and winced when they pierced his skin.

“Have you heard from Kai or Julie, yet?” Chris asked out of the blue.

“Not really,” said Tim. “We’re not overly concerned, though.”

“Those two can handle themselves,” said Manti.

“I guess I’ll take your word for it,” said Chris.

“There are a few reasons why we suspect we haven’t heard from them yet,” said Tim. “Most of the island is Tribal land under the control of the Teo or Pele, but as you can see on that map, there’s some non-tribal areas. That’s one reason, but we suspect the biggest reason is they just haven’t found a means to do so yet.”

“Gina won’t be happy,” said Chris.

Outside the hut, Kame strolled about the village, watching the villagers and researchers interact. He smiled, nodded, and kept walking, not appearing to give much of a shit about what he had to do, since his hands held behind his back. Things were going well anyways. It’s not too big a deal for him to be relaxed and smiling.

Then he walked towards the Chief’s hut, deftly walking around the fish, grain and produce-holding baskets. He happened to glance to his right at Chris examining Manti.

And then he felt a stiffness in his groin.

Panicking, he covered that groin, but thoughts of Manti’s back and chest flooded his mind, only worsening the sensation in his groin. He panicked and hurried away from the Chief’s hut to his own.

As for Manti, he bought he heard something but paid little attention to it.

“Was that Kame?” Tim asked.

Manti promptly turned around, but didn’t see anything worth worrying about, shrugged and turned back as Chris finished the examination.

“Alright, you look good,” said Chris, “Aside from a suspicious spot on your back, but I’m not worried about it too much. I’ll take the sample to get it biopsied.”

“Thank you,” said Manti. “And believe me; I would not worry too much about Huli and Kaitan. They can handle themselves.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The Captain sat at his desk chair as the morning sun shone into the building’s eastern wall, casting its beams over a small area. He steepled his pinky fingers, while laying his chin on the knuckles as he listened to his advisors. They were going on and on about village things that can’t be talked about yet, because SPOILERS. Still, his brows furrowed and his eyelids dropped a few times, and he eventually sat back in his chair as he exasperatedly sighed.

The wooden room had windows on both sides. Papers covered his desk. A map of the island hung on the wall behind him, marking tribal-held areas, some other territories under someone else’s control, and the small patch of land Paradise Village controlled on the southeastern part of the island. But their territory was in Pele territory. And they held most of the southeastern part of the surprisingly-large island, right up to the water’s edge. As for those other factions, it didn’t say much.

Lokan stood next to his desk, facing him and the other advisors. The Captain had to glance up at him a couple of times to make sure he wasn’t threatening anyone nonverbally. Another glance up at him, and he caught him right in the act, glaring at an advisor who suggested reducing the size of the guards’ force.

“Lokan!” the Captain interrupted. “What are you doing?”

“I am not going to—”

“That’s not your job, Lokan,” said the Captain.

“You’re no fun,” said Lokan.

“I’m not supposed to be fun,” said the Captain. “Please, continue. Who was ready to speak?”

“I am, sir,” said one of the advisors. “Unfortunately, it is not good news. It is from the Commandant.”

“Him?” the Captain sighed. “What does he want?”

“He sent a hawk to us, alerting to the runaway of two of his concubines,” said the advisor. “And personally, I think those two that are travelling with Kaitan, Huli, Hilo and Sister Kimi are the concubines. They clearly match their descriptions.”

“I thought they looked familiar,” said the Captain.

“We should grab them!” said Lokan.

“We are NOT going to do that, at least not yet!” the Captain shut him down. “Not only is it rude, they will escape. Knowing them, they are already suspicious. It’ll only give them an excuse to leave. Did the hawk mail say anything about—”

“The Commandant has sent some of his soldiers after them,” said an advisor.”

“Stall our visitors,” said the Captain. “You have already done a good job of it, Lokan.”

“Thank you, sir,” Lokan said with a dash of sarcasm.

“You and Hilo are scheduled for a round of trade talks today,” said an advisor.

“Then we will need to stall him,” said the Captain. “Do what you can, but don’t be so reckless as to raise suspicion. How about a luau?”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The morning grass felt cool and wet under Kaitan’s bare feet. It wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling. He had woken up to it on countless mornings in the jungle or with the tribe. It was like a carpet greeting him and beckoning him to begin a new day in his primitive life, a thought that brought a wistful, nostalgic smile to his lips, and downcast his eyes, but not sadly. No, as he dug into the grass, happy nostalgia flooded his mind, reminding him of everything he loved about living in the forest, a part of his life he left behind after Aunt Brenda tried to manipulate him to come back to Winnipeg, take over the family business, and be the fall guy when the whole thing went—now that’s definitely not a good memory at all.

He deeply inhaled through his nose. The scent of rain was still thick in the air. The bucket next to the cabin’s door was filled almost all the way up to the top. The Jungle Dude picked it up and brought it inside, placing it on the table in front of Hilo, who was reading a Greystokian translation of _Tarzan of the Apes_. His expressions, from amusement to disgust to general dislike.

“He should have been raised by someone else, not racist apes,” Hilo remarked. He tossed it back to Kaitan’s stuff. The Jungle Dude himself shrugged, visibly unfazed by Hilo’s criticism. “Perhaps the native population, instead, then he would not be so violent.”

“Good thing I’m not him,” he said.

“Of course not,” said Hilo. “You are—why are you in such a good mood?”

“I dunno,” Kaitan replied. He looked over at the window at the south end of the cabin, where P’li sat on a chair, leaning forward with his elbows on the windowsill and a wistful expression. “That’s to the south, not the north,” Kaitan gently told him.

“Oh,” said P’li. The Jungle Dude stroked his newly-clean-shaven lower jaw.

“You know Kimi’s interested in you, right, Hilo?” Kaitan asked just to make conversation.

“Good for her,” said Hilo. “I am not interested in her. In fact, I plan to propose to Huli’s friend Lilo.”

Kaitan’s jaw dropped. “Lilo!?” he sputtered. “But I’ve never seen you two—”

“There are a lot of things you do not see,” said Hilo.

Kaitan opened his mouth to say something more, but a knock on the door interrupted him. A man poked his head inside. “The Captain is ready for you, Mr. Hilo,” he said.

“Might as well get down to it,” Hilo remarked, standing up and following the man out the door, leaving Kaitan and P’li by themselves.

They didn’t stay for much longer. They kinda followed him out the door a couple minutes later, but Hilo was already out of sight by then.

The heat got to P’li a little quickly. It didn’t seem to bother Kaitan. It didn’t bother the men and boys all around them, either. They diligently worked, tending to their cabins, making shoes and the like, tending to the small fields aside some of their houses, taking to each other, playing, laughing and socializing. They were all in high spirits. They paid no attention to the Jungle Dude, focusing on their daily lives instead. The able-bodied men did the most work, some of the boys who were old and fit enough helped, the little ankle biters played, and the old men sat around. Of course they seemed happy, but Kaitan couldn’t help but notice some of the men weren’t genuinely smiling.

There also weren’t any women around, either.

The Jungle Dude stretched out his arms, legs and abs like he’d sat down for several hours.

He also groaned loudly enough to grab a group of kids’ attention. They came running up to the surprised, but rather-happy-to-see-them Jungle Dude. Most of them, all boys, were under 10, and acted as such. Surrounding him, they clamored for his attention, their high-pitched, loud voices sounding making the Jungle Dude cover one of his ears and move away from his cabin. He couldn't make many of their questions out. They were all talking over each other. So he brought his hands up and politely gestured for them to calm down, which they did.

“Alright, one at a time,” he said, finally able to get them to calm down.

“Is it true your hands are like a monkey’s?” one nine-year-old asked.

The Jungle Dude chuckled and held his right hand up. It looked very human. “Appearances can be deceiving,” he said when he heard their disappointed sighs and groans. He knelt down and pressed his hands to the ground like an ape would. Instantly, his hands changed appearance. “My bone structures have been changed a little,” he said. “So I guess it’s true and untrue.”

The boys ooh’d and ah’d.

“What’s it like to fight a beastman?” another boy asked.

“Usually hard,” Kaitan replied. “They’re bigger and stronger than humans are, so I prefer to stay away from them, but the ones I fought recently were strangely easier to beat.”

“Did you almost leave us?” a little boy asked.

Kaitan gently and reassuringly smiled at the boy, placed his hand on the boy’s should and said, “Yes, but I didn’t. Because this island’s my home.”

“Did you fight zombies?”

Kaitan laughed again. “Yeah, but I didn’t want to,” he said. “But sometimes, the world has different plans for you.”

“Where are you going?” Another asked.

“That I can’t say,” he replied.

“Show us how to move like a monkey!” another boy called out.

“If you want to be like me, it’s not easy,” said Kaitan, “but it’s not hard, either! Julie herself moves like a cat, and—where is she, anyway?”

“On the girls’ side of the village,” said a boy.

“Girls’ side?” Kaitan asked. “No wonder I haven’t seen any women. Do you play with any of the girls?”

“Yeah, when we’re allowed to,” said one of the boys. This made the Jungle Dude raise an eyebrow.

“Are you allowed to right now?” he asked. The boys all shook their heads. Then they turned around to see a guard walking past. This made them all awkwardly look away from him, but not Kaitan. He kept an eye on him, watching him walk past with a dirty look in his eye—the guard had the dirty look, not Kaitan—until he was past them. The Jungle Dude himself stared at the guard, his steely eyes like something out of a Western.

When the man was gone, he turned back to the boys and saw they were still frozen in place. He smiled reassuringly, patting another one on his shoulder.

“We heard rumors you had given up on saving people,” said one of the boys.

“Not on your life,” the Jungle Hero replied. “By the way, where are the rice fields?”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Julie visibly hated the outfit some of the women were making her wear. It wasn’t quite a robe, but more than a dress. It had a lot more in common with Ancient Greek and Roman clothing than you’d expect on a Polynesian island. What it did do was cover part of her up without making her hotter than she already was.

The other women and girls looked like they were having a good time. It was probably at their guest’s expense, since they giggled each time Julie squirmed in the outfit. It didn’t seem to bother Kimi or Lea, however; their just-as-giddy giggles were probably a good indication they were obviously having some fun.

Well, except for one woman about 10 years older than Julie, who fidgeted with some of the fabric near Julie’s hip, shifting her eyes around and looking nervous. Julie easily caught this, although she didn’t stare at the woman, but did occasionally glance down at her.

The women eventually finished Julie’s uncomfortable outfit and, prompted by a guard with a bell, walked out of the cabin one by one, except for the woman Julie found looking uncomfortable. Julie held her back and gestured to the guard, who wasn’t thrilled about it, but let her go, anyway. He closed the door, leaving this quartet alone.

“Don’t you like your outfit?” the woman asked.

“Well,” Julie trailed off. “I really appreciate you guys coming in and making it.”

“That’s good,” said the woman. “But you looked uncomfortable. Perhaps you prefer your other outfit?”

“It’s kind of hard to explain,” said Julie. “I guess I just prefer the free feeling it give me in the jungle. But enough about me. You look nervous. What’s wrong?”

The woman hesitantly leaned in closer to Julie, cupping her hand over her ear. Intrigued, Kimi and Lea tried to get a little closer so they could hear her better.

“Meet me later tonight at my cabin, all the way on the eastern edge, after the luau,” said the woman. “I need to talk to you about something.

“Please, enjoy the dress,” the woman said upon backing off of Julie and leaving the cabin.

“What was that?” Lea asked.

“Nothing,” said Julie. “We just need to go somewhere tonight.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

“We trade for our rice, Captain,” Hilo corrected. “Our confederation does not control the ride fields; that is the Pele.”

“Ah,” said the Captain. “My apologies. I heard you talking about rice and I just wanted confirmation.”

“No offense intended, none taken,” said Hilo. He sipped his tea in a guano mug, placed it down and sat back in the seat. He glanced around at the guards surrounding the room. They all stood firm with their arms crossed or behind their backs. He sighed, feeling at ease across from the Captain, with a coffee table littered with papers in between them. “By the way, I will need to contact my Chief to inform him of our progress today. That IS acceptable, correct?”

“Of course,” said the Captain. “Be my guest. You are not going anywhere any time soon tough, correct?”

“Not yet,” said Hilo. “But we must be on our way as soon as possible.”

“Will you leave tonight?” the Captain asked. “We were going to have a luau tonight!”

“Why did you not inform me earlier?” Hilo asked.

“We decided to hold it tonight, in your honor,” said the Captain.

“Thank you very much,” said Hilo. “As long as the rain does not flood the village.”

“You don’t need to worry,” said the Captain. “Just stay as long as you like.”

“Thank you for the offer,” said Hilo. “But like I said, we must be going as soon as possible.”

“A shame,” said the Captain.

Hilo sipped his tea while raising an eyebrow. Something deep down inside him was telling him the Captain didn’t want him to leave for reasons other than hospitality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We flash back to when the people of Paradise Village first washed ashore on Greystoke Island, check in on Manti, and the trio realizes that something's not right in Paradise Village.
> 
> I apologize for taking so long to finish this. Once again, my schedule hasn't allowed me to do a whole lot of work, and it's obviously suffered. I've also had occasional flashes of uninterest in the genre (again), but have willed myself to finish this chapter.
> 
> I re-used the prologue to "Paradise Lost", since I don't want that prologue to go to waste. It was pretty well-written, after all. And I don't want to rush things, and just let them happen.


	8. Chapter 8

About three prior to the main events of the story, and strangely, on the exact same day in the calendar as the day the captain's ship sank (albeit several years later), a young woman of 20 sat very bored in one of the classrooms of the University of California-Los Angeles's Haines Hall at 34.072513 N, -118.441127 W, looking out at one of the campus's quads. 

It was a particularly sunny day, but the occupant of the seat by the name of Julia Rosalina Vidic, or, Julie. Her importance, if you have been reading so far, is extremely important. For she is set to be departing on an expedition to some godforsaken island in a matter of weeks for a semester-long trip.

And while she had to remind herself that she was, of course, weeks away from her life-changing trip, she was mere seconds from receiving a harsh reminder from her teacher in 3… 2… 1… now.

“Ms. Vidic!” the teacher shouted with such ferocity to interrupt not only her, but her entire class. His shout forced her to sit up straightly while making a feminine ‘eep’ sound and make nervous eye contact with the teacher’s very irritated look. “Find anything interesting out there?”

Julie was reminded of unfortunate moments in grade school, when her teacher would call her out for similar transgressions. “Not really,” she said.

“Having another Jane Porter daydream or something?” he asked, making her cringe at her interest in a particularly old-fashioned, romantic, and pretty racist literary character and his adventures in a fictional version of Africa.

“No,” she replied.

“Perfect! Then perhaps, you can tell us what we were talking about.”

Julie happened to look just for a microsecond at the desk to her right, belonging to a young woman whom she’d had a few testy conversations with over body image, and particularly how she saw and called Julie a “walking fatshamer” just because her arms happened to be toned. The notes had a single, simple word, but that word carried enough baggage to fill 15 Boeing 747s, and none of it was good: “Jonestown”.

“Jonestown,” she said confidently.

“So either you’ve been listening, or you were lucky,” he said, having been looking away when Julie looked at her already-unhappy neighbor. “What do you know about it, aside from the painfully-obvious blue whale in the room regarding that topic?”

“That it showed all the warning signs of a destructive cult as time went on,” she replied, while stopping herself from making it sound like a question.

“Yes, and what ARE those warning signs?” he asked while making a gesture that subtly said, ‘I want you to answer this, or I am going to humiliate you in more ways than one, because you deserve it this time’.

“They… are really, really controlling over their members’ lives?”

“Go on.”

“They have to abide by ethical double standards?”

“Yes…”

“Their only purpose is to recruit new members? Wait, that doesn’t sound like Jonestown.”

“Kinda depends,” said the teacher. “Early on, they were like any mainline Christian denomi—keep going!”

“They’re usually very exclusive and the leader claims to be innovative? Okay, I KNOW that’s Jones.”

“You’re on the right track.”

“The leader claims to be messianic, which I know perfectly fits Jones.”

“Much better.”

“The leader likes to keep the focus on themselves. Jones would often test his followers’ loyalty to him, and the… Flavor-aid… was one of those tests.”

“And finally?”

Finally? That’s a relief! “Charismatic leaders,” said Julie. “That fits Jones to a T.”

“You may not have been paying attention, but you know your stuff!” the teacher announced and Julie sighed in sweet relief. “Now, why do you think people join cults, Ms. Vidic?”

“For some sense of belonging,” she calmly answered. “It’s a classic familial structure. And that’s how a lot of cults and religions are able to recruit members.”

“And what was Jonestown’s ultimate downfall? The reasons, of course, not the… drinks.”

“Jones had begun to show signs of paranoia early on,” said Julie. “He later moved from Indianapolis to Northern California out of fear of nuclear war. As time went on, he began to show classic signs of paranoia, would abuse his congregation members, including ordering that they give him all his money and devote their lives to him, and was accused of sexual misconduct. To escape this, he moved them to Guyana. The group’s fear of nuclear Armageddon, Jones’s increasingly paranoid behavior, and their extreme isolation in the rainforest were all major contributors to the… you know.”

“I’m going to stop you there, because that’s what I was starting to get to,” said the teacher. “Obviously, Jonestown is an obvious example of a destructive cult and why anthropologists are so fascinated in cults tends to differ among us. But, for the sake of our class today, here’s why.”

So Julie sat back and listened to the teacher talk about Jonestown, not once knowing that for some cosmically strange reason, this would become important in her later life. Of course, being a college student, and since humans cannot predict the future whatsoever, it didn’t really matter.

And that is the end of the prologue. A rubbish prologue, but now the main story shall continue.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Kimi sat in the lowest big branch of a tree overlooking Paradise Village, moodily eating an apple and people-watching. She’d ripped part of her Village dress off at the knees, shamelessly flaunting her legs at the unhappy guards. They yelled at her a couple of times to cover those legs, but she didn’t listen or heed their words. Eventually, the guards got tired and let her be. She’s a teenager, after all, and teenagers don’t take kindly to being told what to do by authority figures, especially in this case, of an obvious cult.

She watched a lot of things going on; guards bringing a dead deer into the village to the villagers’ cheers, a couple fighting over something (she could see a lot, but not hear), boys teasing a girl that had wandered into the men's side of the village, and guards acting all high-and-mighty, but no one even challenged them.

She didn’t see (read: ignored) Lea approaching the tree base, instead letting her now-perpetually-bare feet hit the trunk’s bark and throwing bark bits raining down on the annoyed young woman.

“OI!” she shouted, a word so common among global languages. “What are you doing up there!?” _That_ was in Greystokian, the _wahine_ ’s native tongue. That fell on deaf ears, since Kimi pulled her legs up and held them closer to her chest. “I know you can understand me!”

“No I don’t!” Kimi called back in Greystokian.

“You liar!” Lea shouted back. “I heard you say it in my own tongue! You can understand me!” she ran over to the tree trunk, attempting to climb up, but couldn’t get a grip on the bark. Kimi watched, half-amused, half-annoyed.

“You’re doing it wrong!” she shouted in English.

“Shut up, you inhuman _haole_!” Lea called back.

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” Kimi shouted in Greystokian again, before climbing out of the branch and down the tree to stare Lea dead in the eyes. “You have _no right_ to call me that. You have no idea what I’ve been through!” She huffed, kicked the ground with her bare right foot and stormed off. Julie walked up to them at about the same time, still wearing that dress the other women gave her. Kimi stormed right past her, and her attempts to call her failed.

“What in the Underworld was that about?” Julie asked.

“Ask her!” Lea replied.

“What’d she say?”

“She said I didn’t know what she’s been through,” said Lea.

“Ah,” Julie replied. “I might as well tell you, then. We found her washed up on the South Shore beach a few months ago. Her adopted family treated her horribly and she’s still trying to move on from that. Although, that doesn’t give her an excuse to act like she’s been.”

Lea clearly wasn’t expecting that. She sighed and rubbed her forehead while Julie nodded. “Real sorry,” she said. “But it’s always best to learn where someone’s come from before you pass any judgement on them.

“Like take me, for example. I just wanted a nice, quiet jungle life, but I didn’t get it. Instead, I got this mess of getting into more adventures than Tarzan and Sheena combined!”

“Who?”

“Forget it,” said Julie. “By the way, I’m gonna need you to come somewhere with me after the luau tonight.”

“Why?”

“They weren’t specific, but they looked desperate,” Julie replied.

“MORE people!?” Lea shouted. Julie slapped her hand over her mouth.

“You wanna get us in trouble?” Julie whispered. She looked up and pleasantly smiled and waved at a pair of guards passing by. Judging by their bored sneers, they didn’t pay them any attention. Sighing in relief, Julie turned Lea around and nudged her forward. “We should find Kimi and apologize to her,” she said.

The plan to find Kimi didn’t go anywhere. Kaitan walked up to them, followed by some eager kids begging for his attention to tell some of his stories. Once he caught up to them, he looked up and down at Julie’s Greekish dress and instantly didn’t like it, something that made Julie look back down at it in disgust.

“Well, the other women made it for me,” she said.

“Nice,” said Kaitan. “Something going on?”

“A couple things,” Julie replied, before quietly telling him about the situation between Kimi and Lea, and then the thing the women told her about.

“Huh,” said Kaitan. “I just asked the boys about the rice fields. They said people who go there don’t come back.”

“Some paradise,” Julie remarked.

“You’re Julie, right?” one of the boys asked, having finally worked up some nerve to talk to the young woman.

“Yep,” she said proudly. “I know you might not recognize me wearing this.” Judging by how old they were, she reckoned they had certain dreams about how she looked in her regular, standard-issue outfit, like boys do.

“Is it true you can talk to animals?” the same boy asked.

“Not really,” said Julie. “We can imitate certain animal calls, though. We just don’t use it that much.”

“You want to see one?” Kaitan asked. Taking his hands up to his mouth, he made a half-throated call mimicking some birds and mammals. The boys ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhhed’, unaware of their meaning, just that Kaitan was able to do it. However, if they looked at Julie, they would have noticed she was getting a little excited, eagerly biting her bottom lip. The Jungle Dude finished his demonstration and turned to Julie to give her a wink. “Easy, lover-girl.”

“You had to pick the mating calls,” she whispered.

“Just so you know, these animals do what they want, so remember that,” said Kaitan. “And respect them; they’re wild animals, not pets. And no, it’s not a good idea to fight them unless you have to.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Kimi found her way over to a building somewhere over near the plaza and pavilion, out of sight and sound from everything else. There, she sat down to sulk next to a window where she could just barely see something going on, but wasn’t exactly sure what it was. That didn’t matter much to her, as she squeezed in between a couple of wood piles in sort of an “if it fits, it sits” human/jungle dweller version.

She could also hear a bit more on the inside, but it was still muffled. She tried to listen, but gave up quickly. She sighed, took a deep breath and leaned back against the wall.

Hilo was still negotiating trade terms inside. Negotiating trade was not something he was entirely used to; that was usually up to the Chiefs themselves. However, he currently felt that he was doing a semi-decent job, the Captain’s stonewalling, for lack of a better term, notwithstanding.

Trade isn’t an easy topic to discuss at all. Outside Greystoke, trade negotiations between so-called “civilized” nations can take years and and be held up over trivial things, like one country feeling protective of a product or their own markets. And trade can have wide-ranging, deep effects on a country’s economy. Ask blue-collar workers in Rust Belt America about how they feel on NAFTA, then you might have to sit down because you’ll be there for a while.

And Hilo would have to be at the top of his negotiating game if the Teo were going to get a good deal out of this, but the Captain wasn’t having it.

“Listen,” he said, “Our rice is important, and we’re not going to just give it up for something meaningless like taro.”

“But taro is an important part of our diet,” said Hilo. “Even if we have plenty of game. It should be an honor to—”

“Unfortunately, I have fed taro to my villagers, and they don’t like it,” the Captain interrupted. “They have complained about the taste.”

Hilo sighed, leaned back and rubbed his face. “I think it is best for us to suspend negotiations for today,” he said. “I will need to speak with my Chief. Do you have a radio?”

“Of course we do,” the Captain said, gesturing towards a HAM radio in one of the corners. “Will you need us to find their frequency?”

“No thank you,” said Hilo. “I will contact him myself. I know how to work HAM radios.”

“Excellent!” said the Captain. “Please, go right ahead.”

Manti was relieved to hear from Hilo. The relief passed quickly, replaced by intrigue at the way the trade negotiations were proceeding. The chief hummed and hawed as Hilo spoke in their native tongue, occasionally looking back at the nearby guards watching him.

He froze. They watched him intently and suspiciously. Hilo reconsidered what he was going to say and told Manti about the village’s hospitality. But their expressions visibly unnerved him, and he decided to wrap the conversation up as quickly as possible, but keep it short, simple and to the point. The Chief’s voice hardened as Hilo wrapped it up. But he also kept a vocal mask up as he told Hilo to keep on as he was doing, and ended the transmission. The Captain and his officers nodded to Hilo as he departed the building.

Something caught his eye. A curled-up figure sat next to the window. Hilo raised his eyebrow before realizing who it was, so he went over to the person.

“Ms. Fujioka,” he said upon approaching her.

The girl in question scrambled to her feet in surprise. She instantly blushed at the sight of Hilo, looked away and tried to think of several ways to confess her feelings for him, despite his obvious disinterest.

“I take it something bad happened?” he inquired.

“No,” she replied.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” she said.

He didn’t push the matter. He knew he’d eventually get a better answer from Julie upon asking her. So he shrugged and gestured that he was going to walk away. She followed after him immediately.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

They found Julie had already ditched her new outfit upon returning to the cabin. She was in the middle of changing out, but didn’t react to them seeing her naked except when she turned around. “What happened?” she asked nonchalantly.

“I fear they are delaying us,” said Hilo.

“Am I supposed to be shocked?” Julie asked.

“No,” Hilo replied. “Neither am I. I figured that out during Trade negotiations.”

“So what next?” Julie asked apprehensively.

“We should leave soon,” said Hilo. “Although we may have to leave without telling them. It is a shame. They have been good hosts, aside from wanting something more from us. We leave tomorrow. I do not wish to put their hospitality to waste. In fact, there may be more we can get from them tonight.”

“Do you expect them to talk?” Julie asked.

“No,” said Hilo. “But there are ways for us to find more information. Where is Kaitan?”

“Not here,” she answered.

“I know that,” he answered.

“I think the kids are flocking to him,” she said. She momentarily paused and walked over to her bed, where her standard-issue outfits lay. Hilo watched as she re-donned them.

“I notice you are wearing your ‘standard-issue’ clothes,” he said.

“Yeah,” she answered. “I don’t know why I stopped wearing them. Oh yeah, it was after Kai’s aunt came to visit.”

“Well, I don’t want to take you from Kaitan,” said Hilo, “But because you have become part of the jungle itself, you should be proud of it.”

“Thanks,” she replied.

“But that was my opinion,” said Hilo.

“Nah, I think I agree with you,” she said.

At that moment, Kaitan walked into the cabin, and was visibly surprised to see the impromptu gathering. “Did I miss something?” he asked.

“No, in fact we were waiting for you,” said Hilo. “She will agree with you more, but I already told her that you both look better in your usual outfits.”

“He is right,” said Kaitan. “You look amazing in your jungle clothes.”

“Thanks,” Julie said, blushing and pushing some of her hair behind her ear.

“Now, we must return to the matter at hand,” said Hilo. “I am concerned about our hosts.”

“You noticed that they’re technically keeping us prisoners here,” said Julie.

“Not my words, but it works,” said Hilo.

“We’re not the only prisoners here,” said Kaitan. “So are the villagers.”

“This only confirms my suspicions. We must leave,” said Hilo. “Now what I am about to tell you, does not leave this cabin. For I have a plan for us to get some information about the village, and so that we may escape.”

“Oh, right,” Julie said, having the look of someone who just remembered something very, very important. “We might have to take some extra passengers along.”

“What did you do?” Hilo sighed.

“Nothing! Except maybe tell some sex slaves that we’ll help them escape?”

Hilo slapped his face and rubbed it. “This will be harder than I thought.”

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know it’s been a long time since I updated, but I can explain.
> 
> To put it simply, I lost interest in this story for a few months. I have a bad habit of doing that a lot with other projects, unfortunately, since my brain’s so full of ideas. And I’ve been rather busy with two jobs, although that doesn’t explain other activities. In any case, I want to thank everyone for their continued patience with my bullshit. Or apologize for said continued bullshit, either/or.


End file.
